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Trump’s Acting Defense Secretary Steps Aside, Extending Pentagon Uncertainty

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn from consideration to take over the post on a permanent basis.

Trump’s Acting Defense Secretary Steps Aside, Extending Pentagon Uncertainty
Patrick Shanahan, acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, speaks to members of the media as Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, right, listens after a briefing on Iran in the basement of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn from consideration to take over the post on a permanent basis, President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday, after reports surfaced of a domestic abuse incident almost a decade ago.

Trump said he will name Secretary of the Army Mark Esper as the new acting defense secretary, a day after Shanahan announced the Defense Department would send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East amid tensions with Iran.

Trump’s Acting Defense Secretary Steps Aside, Extending Pentagon Uncertainty

“Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family,” Trump said on Twitter.

Shanahan’s exit comes amid conflicting allegations of domestic abuse between him and his former wife.

“It is unfortunate that a painful
and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way in the course of this
process.,” Shanahan said in a statement. “I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family’s life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal.”

Trump told reporters at the White House later that he heard about Shanahan’s personal issues for the first time on Monday, calling him a “wonderful person” while defending what he called his administration’s “very good vetting process.”

He said he will “most likely” nominate Esper to the defense secretary post and that he could win Senate confirmation “very quickly” because he’s “very experienced.”

Both Shanahan and his ex-wife, Kimberly Jordinson acknowledged in court filings and police reports that a late-night argument on August 28, 2010, after both had been drinking, spilled from their bedroom to the front yard of their Seattle home, according to USA Today.

His former wife said in a 911 call to the Seattle Police Department that “my husband is throwing punches at me.”

But in a statement issued to USA Today, Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, said: “Though my marriage ended in sorrow and disappointment, I never laid a hand on my then-wife and cooperated fully in a thorough law enforcement investigation that resulted in her being charged with assault against me -- charges which I had dropped in the interest of my family.”

Trump’s Acting Defense Secretary Steps Aside, Extending Pentagon Uncertainty

The White House announced in May that Trump planned to nominate Shanahan as defense secretary to succeed Jim Mattis, who quit in December. The move was supposed to help bring greater stability to Trump’s national security team, which lacks Senate-confirmed leaders at the Pentagon and United Nations.

Shanahan, 56, has been acting defense secretary since Mattis stepped down over Trump’s abrupt announcement that he was withdrawing all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. He’s since proven his loyalty, backing the president’s efforts to tap Pentagon funding for a border wall over bipartisan congressional opposition and working to scale back, though not eliminate, American forces in Syria.

Unlike Mattis, a laconic former Marine Corps general, Shanahan was an unabashed Trump supporter, backing the president’s efforts to use Pentagon money for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border over bipartisan congressional opposition and endeavoring to scale back, though not eliminate, the U.S. military presence in Syria.

“Based upon his outstanding service to the Country and his demonstrated ability to lead, President Trump intends to nominate Patrick M. Shanahan to be the secretary of Defense,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that was posted on Twitter May 9.

The move resets the clock on Trump’s search for a defense chief. He didn’t make clear whether Esper was a candidate for a formal nomination, and other contenders are likely to surface. Among them is Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who interviewed for the Pentagon job during the presidential transition in 2016 and has volunteered himself for the post since then, according to a person familiar with the matter.

While Trump never formally nominated Shanahan, the announcement that he would do so was seen as an effort to help stabilize the administration’s national security operation, which lacks Senate-confirmed leaders at the Pentagon and the United Nations.

Sanders cited Shanahan’s leadership -- no one has served longer as acting Pentagon chief -- as evidence that he’s “beyond qualified to lead the Department of Defense, and he will continue to do an excellent job.”

Trump originally embraced having former military brass in his administration -- he liked to refer to “my generals” and called Mattis “Mad Dog,” a nickname the former Marine Corps general disliked -- their tendency to resist his demands wore thin. While Shanahan has been more accommodating, his mild-mannered and sometimes tentative style in public lacked the swagger Trump admires in his top aides.

Esper who was confirmed as Army secretary in November 2017, is a former Raytheon Co. vice president for government relations. He’s a 1986 graduate of West Point who served in the infantry for more than 10 years, including the Gulf War in 1991. Esper and Shanahan were seen heading into a conference room at the Pentagon along with Eric Chewning, Shanahan’s chief of staff, after the withdrawal was announced.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, told reporters that “Mark Esper is a great choice. I think he’s confirmable.”

Despite bipartisan criticism in Congress that Trump lacks a Senate-confirmed defense secretary -- a concern heightened by the tensions with Iran -- the president’s eventual nominee is likely to face added scrutiny because Shananan’s tumultuous domestic history wasn’t revealed when he was vetted by the White House and the FBI before his confirmation as deputy defense secretary.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the Shanahan situation a “fiasco” and a vetting failure. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee, which votes on Pentagon nominees, said he thinks there may have been “deliberate concealment” by the administration.

--With assistance from Tony Capaccio, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Steven T. Dennis, Laura Litvan and Justin Sink.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Larry Liebert

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