The General Jacqueline D. Van Ovost and Lieutenant-General Laura J. Richardson are expected to be appointed to the rank of elite four-star officer in the United States military soon. This Pentagon proposal has yet to be validated by the White House and the Senate, which should not pose a problem. But that probably wouldn’t have been the case a few months ago, reports The New York Times (NYT).
Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense of the United States sacked last November, and General Mark A. Milley, Chief of Staff of the American Armies, are said to have rejected these promotion proposals as much as possible, for fear of the reaction of Donald Trump. The “wrong” of Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, General of the Air Force and Commander of Air Mobility Command, and Laura J. Richardson, who heads the United States Army North? To be women.
The two Pentagon leaders feared that Donald Trump would refuse their promotion and decide to place his own candidates for these positions, mainly occupied by white men. They then decided to wait for the November elections, hoping that Joe Biden would beat the billionaire in the race for the White House. In their eyes, the appointment process would have been “more fluid” with Joe Biden as president, explains the NYT.
Mark Esper fired two days after election
If Donald Trump had been re-elected, the names of Jacqueline D. Van Ovost and Laura J. Richardson would still have been proposed in November, with the hope that their nominations would be accepted. “They were chosen because they were the best officers for the positions, and I didn’t want their promotions to derail because someone in Trump’s White House saw that I recommended them or thought the The United States Department of Defense was in politics, ”said Mark Esper.
For the NYT, the fears of the former Secretary of Defense were valid, since he was fired by Donald Trump just two days after the election lost to Joe Biden on November 9. A sign that does not deceive concerning the relations between the two men, strained for several months while Mark Esper had refused the deployment of the army to face the anti-racist demonstrations in the country. During the last months of the mandate of the now ex-US president, several of his trusted men were also placed in positions at the Pentagon or on the boards of military academies, from which they cannot be ousted by the Biden administration. Several pardons granted by Donald Trump before leaving the White House also made people cringe
Christopher Miller, successor to Mark Esper, as well as several former officials of the Trump administration have assured that this information was unfounded. Contacted by the NYT, they said the end-of-year appointments had been postponed for “timing” issues, due to the Senate’s inability to deal with the matter within the allotted time.
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