Another Pentagon Official to Depart Amid Trump’s Purge

By Staff, CNN

The deputy chief of staff to the US war secretary resigned, a US official told CNN on Thursday, becoming the latest official to depart the Pentagon amid a purge that began Monday when US President Donald Trump fired War Secretary Mark Esper.

Alexis Ross resigned, the official said, joining now-former chief of staff Jen Stewart and the top Pentagon officials overseeing policy and intelligence, all three of whom had submitted their resignations Tuesday.

The flurry of changes within the department in recent days has put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials, who are concerned about what could come next. The moves will likely only add to the sense of chaos within the Pentagon following Trump's firing of Esper by a tweet.

Stewart was replaced by Kash Patel, who most recently served as senior director for counterterrorism at the White House National Security Council and is seen as much more ideological and closely linked to Trump.

Esper was replaced by Christopher Miller, who was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump abandoned him two days after his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, was projected as the winner of the US presidential election, a conclusion that the departing president has refused to publicly acknowledge.

According to CNN, the White House now seems focused on going after Esper's undersecretaries at the War Department in the wake of his firing on Monday. The sources said the effort may be because Esper and his team were pushing back on a premature withdrawal from Afghanistan that would be carried out before the required conditions on the ground were met, and other pending security issues.

While top officials have been dealing with Trump's unpredictable decision making since he took office, the current level of uncertainty has risen steadily since the election. Concerns are growing that a chaotic transition period could undermine the country’s national security.