President Trump announced on Monday that Hon. Christopher C. Miller, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will assume the role of acting secretary of defense.
“I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism Center… will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately,” President Trump said.
Miller was sworn in as the seventh director of the National Counterterrorism Center Aug. 10, 2020. Prior to his role with the National Counterterrorism Center, he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense (DASD) for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism.
Miller was responsible for supervising the employment of special operations forces in counterterrorism, Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Information Operations, unconventional warfare, irregular warfare, direct action, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, counter proliferation and sensitive special operations.
He served as the special assistant to the president and senior director for Counterterrorism and Transnational Threats at the National Security Council from 2018-2019. In the role, he was responsible for strategic level policy making and implementation, and support to senior NSC and White House leadership.
After his retirement from the military in 2014, Miller worked as a defense contractor providing clandestine Special Operations and Intelligence expertise directly to the Under Secretaries of Defense for Intelligence and Policy.