Charles Dharapak/AP
- The White House fired several members of the Defense Business Board, a panel of outside experts who advise senior Pentagon leaders, on Friday, Politico reported.
- The move follows the firing of most of the Defense Policy Board last week.
- The removal of these advisors also comes as the Trump administration purges senior Pentagon officials, to include the defense secretary, his chief of staff, the top policy and intelligence officials, and the official leading the Pentagon’s fight against ISIS.
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The White House pushed out more prominent defense advisors on Friday.
Some members of the Defense Business Board received a form letter from the White House liaison to the Pentagon, Joshua Whitehouse, on Friday informing them that their “membership on the Defense Business Board has expired or is coming to an end,” Politico reported.
“A number of board members have been terminated with a form letter,” Michael Bayer, formerly the board chairman, told the publication.
“In my experience,” Bayer said, “I was very surprised that the White House would, at the eleventh hour, adjust an advisory board that for 19 years has had a record of nonpartisan support with the department.”
The Pentagon did not comment on changes to the board, which consists of outside experts appointed to provide senior Department of Defense officials with independent advice on business issues.
The form letter the departing board members received reportedly said that the Department of Defense will be nominating new board members and thanked them for their service.
The move follows another late last month by Whitehouse to remove 11 of the 13 members of the Defense Policy Board, a group of outside advisors who offer their perspectives on defense and national security matters.
In addition to pushing out defense advisors, the Trump administration has also purged a number of senior Pentagon officials.
Starting on November 9, President Donald Trump abruptly fired his Mark Esper as secretary of defense, replacing him with Christopher Miller, who was previously the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
The next day, three more Pentagon officials resigned: the chief of staff to the secretary of defense, Jen Stewart; the under secretary of defense for policy, James Anderson; and the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, Joseph Kernan.
Those important positions within the Pentagon were filled by Trump loyalists, such as retired general and Fox News commentator Anthony Tata and former White House National Security Council officials Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Kash Patel.
This week, it was reported that Chris Maier, head of the Pentagon's Defeat ISIS Task Force, had been forced to resign after he was told by the White House liaison that the war against ISIS had been won and that his office was being disbanded.
Maier's duties were taken over by Tata and Cohen-Watnick, who occupy the top Pentagon policy and intelligence positions, respectively.
President Donald Trump will hold office until January 20, but it remains unclear why his administration is making so many significant personnel moves in the final weeks of his presidency.