Who Is Mark Esper? Narrated By Mohanad Elshieky | NowThis

That’s Mark Esper, a former top lobbyist at Raytheon, the giant defense contractor, and our current Secretary of Defense. He’s second in command to the President, charged with leading all our armed forces. This is a little story about a high powered lobbyist turned guy who stands to benefit from his former lobbying.

Mark Thomas Esper was born in 1964 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, home of the Big Mac. Esper is a graduate of the famous 1986 class of West Point, which included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among other Trump administration officials. After West Point, Esper served in the Gulf War. He received the Bronze Star and a combat infantryman badge for his service in Iraq. He served more than a decade on active duty.

In 1996, Esper became Chief of Staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank funded by political mega donors like Rebekah Mercer and Betsy DeVos. Later, he worked as a senior policy advisor for Senator Chuck Hagel, a guy who voted for the war in Iraq. Hagel would later be hired by the Obama administration to serve as our country’s Secretary of Defense.

Esper would go on to work in the George W. Bush administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy at the Pentagon.

In 2010, Esper was hired as vice president of government relations at Raytheon. And now, Mark Esper is the Secretary of Defense. One interesting sidebar: Esper was confirmed two days before Trump, according to a whistleblower, asked Ukraine to quote “do us a favor” and investigate his political rival the Bidens, and if they didn’t, he would withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid. Just an hour and forty five minutes after the phone call on July 25th, Trump welcomed Mark Esper in a full honors ceremony on the Pentagon’s parade field.

During Esper’s confirmation hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren called on him to recuse himself from matters involving Raytheon. Esper is in charge of the military’s budget, which stands at $738 billion.

It’s unclear whether or not Esper will work closely with Raytheon throughout the rest of his time in the Pentagon. After he leaves the government, he might spin around once more in the revolving door, all the way back to a giant defense contractor, who might then be in a better place because of the work he accomplished while in the government. Raytheon’s stock surged by 1.5% after the U.S. assassinated Qasem Soleimani. And a President with Twitterer fingers will only fatten Esper’s already fat wallet.

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[TheChudReport]

He made a lobbyist the Secretary of Defense and then the Chuds unironically chant drain the swamp. Am I still a parody?

[kathygoheen]

A lobbyist for Defense Secretary. Only the best.🤣

[johnnyaingel]

Thank you so much for sharing this incredible story God bless you

[amphiumaiii]

This is the opposite of what most Trump supporters say they support, but they're too uninformed to do anything about it.

[illuminada]

These videos deserve millions of views. Maybe you could put a makeup tutorial at the end. Just a thought.

[eavn]

4:28 That's not an excuse. HHS' budget is $1.4 Trillion, the highest of the departments.

[johnnyaingel]

Interesting story thank you for sharing

[karlhart]

Apparently this video is false the real defense secretary is Mike Pompeo

[giordanobruno]

Good Luck, Raytheon makes the voting machines.

[jamesmurphy]

Honestly what are this guy's qualifications to be deputy secretary
Chairman of a think tank or to anything with Raytheon

[thosethatcan]

Pfffft.. another Gimps of Pvtin guy probably

[dukecraig]

Well maybe we should just appoint a comedian like yourself as Secretary of Defense, God knows you comedian's seem to know how to do everybody's job's better then them.

[kaak]

How did he work for the Obama administration before the Bush hmm 🤔 lo lololol

[thosethatcan]

1:11 ends there. And at alpha bank Moscow