TEHRAN - It seems that the power game in White House has become more complicated than ever. The United States President Donald Trump has nominated Mark Esper as his next Defense Secretary. 

In a recent report, Foreign Policy news agency has pointed out that Mark Esper has a close relationship with hardliners of White House. The report goes on to say that Mark Esper has close relations with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton and these relations will help Trump to keep his unstable administration moving. 

It seems that the nomination of Mark Esper has convinced American media that the position of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo on Trump’s team has been stabilized.   

Mark Esper has had close relationships with John Bolton since George W. Bush was in office; he was also classmates with Mike Pompeo in U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 

Despite their long history together, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo still don’t have good feelings about having Esper on board. Of course, Bolton and Pompeo don’t have any problem with Esper himself, but they are extremely worried about Trump’s intentions in appointing Esper as his Defense Secretary. 

According to reliable sources, as of March, Donald Trump has started clandestine meetings with some traditional republicans about removing Bolton and Pompeo from his cabinet. 

Obviously, Trump is mad at Bolton and Pompeo because their plans and suggestions have not solved any of U.S. foreign policy problems and have only reduced Trump’s popularity in key states. However, Trump might still have doubts about removing them, because by doing so he will almost certainly lose the support of Tea Party Movement and Neoliberals. 

Now with selecting Esper as the new head of Pentagon, Trump is trying to compensate for the future absence of Pompe and Bolton in his cabinet and send a message to Tea Party supporters and Neoliberals.

In this message, Trump is trying to tell these parties that even in the absence of Pompeo and Bolton, Pentagon will still be ruled by republicans and firing these two top hardline republic officials doesn’t mean that Trump is any less a supporter of hardline republic parties. 

Under this scenario, Trump can gain the votes of all three different parties of Neoliberals, Tea Party Movement supporters and traditional republicans in upcoming presidential elections. 

It seems that in near future, more details of this complicated game that Trump is playing behind the scenes will be revealed. A game in which Pentagon is used as a winning point.