By Adam Payne, Business Insider

• President Donald Trump has filled a series of senior defense positions with loyalists, causing alarm among Pentagon officials.


• Four defense officials, including Mark Esper, the defense secretary, and James Anderson, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, have either resigned or been sacked since Trump lost the presidential election.


• Anderson was replaced by Anthony Tata, a retired US Army brigadier general who made false claims about President Barack Obama including that he was a “terrorist leader,” CNN reported.


• “This is scary. It’s very unsettling,” one defense official told CNN, adding, “These are dictator moves.”


• Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the next few months could be “downright dangerous.”

President Donald Trump is continuing to replace senior defense officials with loyalists, creating alarm in the Pentagon that his rapid overhaul of key staffers could undermine national security.

Since Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday, three other Defense Department officials have either resigned or been sacked. James Anderson, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, quit on Tuesday after clashing with the White House over its attempts to insert allies and controversial figures into top Pentagon positions, Politico reported.

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