The dust from last week’s staff shake-up at the Pentagon may have settled, but security experts fear what might happen should a national security crisis happen while novice loyalists appointed by President Trump are in charge.
“I wouldn’t underestimate the damage that can be done in a short period of time,” Zack Cooper, a security analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner. “This incoming team is going to find that they are overwhelmed just trying to keep their hands on the basic policy processes that are going on within the Pentagon, let alone try and execute some vision that they or the president might have over the next couple of months.”
Trump began the bloodletting by firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper last Monday. Esper had earned Trump’s ire by opposing his use of active-duty military to put down George Floyd protests in June.
Esper’s ouster was followed by several resignations and replacements, including two undersecretary positions, chief advisers to the defense secretary, who were replaced by Trump loyalists Anthony Tata and Ezra Cohen-Watnick. Kash Patel, a National Security Council staffer and former Devin Nunes adviser, was appointed as the defense secretary’s chief of staff.
Cooper said that while the military leadership remains in place (so far), such a turnover makes the defense apparatus unsteady.
“The civilian parts of the Defense Department are increasingly weak, and I think that is going to accelerate over the next couple of months,” he said. “When you lose the experience at the Defense Department, you’re taking on increased risk.”
He added: “You have less experience in these jobs, and there’s therefore higher likelihood that they will make mistakes. I think a lot of people will be hoping that there isn’t a big national security crisis over the next 70 days.”
Retired Army Deputy Judge Advocate U.S. Army Mjr. Gen. John Altenburg told the Washington Examiner that placing loyalists in DOD positions is nothing new, but it will cause disruption.
“All presidents appoint what they’ve considered to be loyalists,” he said. “The loyal piece is not significant.”
However, the George Washington University law professor worried that losing several high-level individuals can confound the operational efficiency of the bureaucracy.
“It is somewhat unusual, and I think it makes it tough for government to function,” he said. “There’s a ripple effect like that. It makes it difficult for the rest of the department.”
Altenburg believes that the appointments will make it harder for Trump to enact policy positions in his final two months.
“It’s such a large organization; it’s difficult to make dramatic change at any time, let alone at a time when many positions are unfilled,” Altenburg said. “You don’t see anything dramatic. You don’t see big change coming.”
However, White House sources say Trump’s moves were to do just that, and reports indicate Trump may already be paving the way for rapid troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Cooper said not knowing what the unvetted officials have in mind is dangerous.
“One thing that’s not clear to me about those three individuals, what they actually have in mind, what they want to do,” he said. “We haven’t been able to ask them questions because they haven’t gone through Senate confirmation.”
Cooper added: “There is more risk associated with these individuals going into these jobs.”
