The acting defense secretary installed by President Donald Trump days after last month's election fired the members of a board tasked with providing Pentagon leaders with business advice on Friday and replaced them with a new group that includes staunch Trump loyalists.

Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, among Trump's most outspoken advocates, will be among the new members of the Defense Business Board, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced in a statement late Friday. Other members include Cory Mills, a columnist for the far-right news outlet Newsmax, as well as other veterans of the Trump administration, such as retired Maj. Gen. Robert McMahon, who appears to be the same person who stepped down from one of the top civilian spots in the Pentagon last year.

The Pentagon declined to respond to follow-up questions.

The move is the latest in what has become a string of dramatic shakeups and unprecedented policy announcements during the lame duck period. Reports emerged last week Miller had purged another elite advisory board that included former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, also replacing them with loyalists to Trump. Miller himself assumed his current position after Trump fired then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper with no explanation days after losing the election. The firing was widely believed to be due to Esper's opposition to Trump's last-minute troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. Miller last week announced the Pentagon would move forward with the drawdowns..

Miller – who has yet to take questions from reporters in a public setting – again did not offer an explanation for the latest purge, and in a statement said he was "proud to welcome each of these new members."

"I look forward to their contributions to help guide the Department's business efforts in the coming years," Miller said in a statement. "These individuals have a proven record of achievement within their respective fields and have demonstrated leadership that will serve our Department, and our nation well."

He thanked the outgoing members of the board, which was established in 2002, "for volunteering their time and talents in service to the Department of Defense and in turn, our country."

According to the board's charter, its members must posses "a proven track record of sound judgment and business acumen in leading or governing large, complex private sector corporations or organizations and a wealth of top-level, global business experience in the areas of executive management, corporate governance, audit and finance, human resources, economics, technology, or healthcare."

The other newly announced board members are Henry Dreifus, Bill Bruner, Christopher Shank, Joseph Schmidt, Keary Miller, Alan Weh and Earl Matthews. Outgoing members include Michael Bayer, Arnold Punaro, Atul Vashisitha, John O'Connor, David Venlet, Paul Dolan, Scott Dorn, David Walker and David Van Slyke.