Esper thread:

Couple things to discuss here.

When you’re a cabinet official—especially in a volatile administration— you resignation letter is almost *always* prepped, because you serve at the pleasure of the President and could be asked for it at any time. 1/4

The fact that it leaked that Esper “prepped” his resignation letter is still significant.

Trump obviously appears poised to lose the election—and is increasingly manic while the slow-motion loss hits him—so the question is why is Esper resigning *now*? 2/4

Could it be (as many folks have suggested) that it’s a “rat fleeing the sinking ship” scenario? Sure, but not only is that almost entirely pointless this late in the term, it’s potentially dangerous for national security. 3/4

My concern? Maybe the increasingly manic POTUS is working on an order Esper doesn’t like. I hope I’m wrong, but immediately discounting this as Esper trying to leave before he’s fired is lazy analysis.

It could ultimately be correct, but Trump is also insane, so we’ll see. 4/4

To be clear: I’m not suggesting that anyone should start panicking now, because, as I said in my first Tweet, having a resignation letter isn’t unusual.

He could also be expecting Trump to fire him when he scrubs Confederate names from bases.

Just saying to watch this space.