Secretary of the Army to Take Over as Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense

The U.S. military has a new Secretary of Defense:

Pat Shanahan confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as acting defense secretary and ended his campaign to seek the job outright amid reports of domestic violence in his family involving himself, his ex-wife and their son.

Army Secretary Mark Esper was selected by President Donald Trump to be the new acting defense secretary, made public in a series of tweets that also announced Shanahan will step down.

“I know Mark, and have no doubt he will do a fantastic job!,” Trump tweeted.

Shanahan said in a prepared statement following Trump’s tweets that “after significant reflection” he was withdrawing from consideration for defense secretary and resigning from his post.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the domestic violence incident is pretty bad with Shanahan’s 17-year old son beating his mother with a baseball bat. Shanahan who was divorced at the time, rushed to hire a lawyer and defend his son for beating her because his ex-wife had a documented history of abuse. Not a good look for Shanahan.

Anyway with the Secretary of the Army taking over this would likely mean increased influence for the Army within the Department of Defense.