Vindman was told that that there have been discussions within the Department of Defense about sending his name forward on a "list of one" or holding his name back until after the election to avoid impacting the promotions of other service members, the source said.

Vindman's nomination for a promotion proceeded with no flags from the Pentagon. "This was all handled in a normal process," the official said. Esper had already approved the list of promotions put forward by the Army, including Vindman's promotion to colonel, and that list was still scheduled to go to the White House on Wednesday.

After he was fired from the NSC in February, an Army spokesperson told CNN that Vindman had been reassigned to the Department of the Army.

The President later defended Vindman's firing from the National Security Council. Trump complained about news coverage of the firing in a tweet, saying reporting was done

"as though I should think only how wonderful he was. Actually, I don't know him, never spoke to him, or met him (I don't believe!)."

Top military leaders, including Esper, have insisted that Vindman would be protected from retaliation of any kind after he transitioned back to the Pentagon, but some Democratic lawmakers have made it clear they believe that he is still being targeted by the White House.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois announced last week that she is blocking Senate confirmation of 1,123 senior US Armed Forces promotions until she receives assurances that Vindman's promotion wouldn't be blocked. Vindman's name is included in a later batch. Duckworth wrote:

"Secretary Esper's failure to protect his troops sets a new, dark precedent that any Commander in Chief can interfere with routine merit-based military promotions to carry out personal vendettas and retaliation against military officers who follow duly-authorized subpoenas while upholding their oath of office and core principles of service."

John Bolton said he believed Vindman, who worked under him at the NSC, deserved to be promoted based on what he observed during his time in the administration. Bolton said to CNN's Jake Tapper:

"Based on not just his service, but his twin brother's service at the NSC, both of whom were pushed out of their assignments early, I think they certainly deserve promotion based on what I saw.

"They shouldn't be discriminated against. I hope there's nobody in the White House who's holding this up or putting bureaucratic obstacles in the way. I think this is something, this kind of corruption of this promotion process, unfortunately, typical of a number of things that have happened in the administration, I think it's a bad signal to all of our military."

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These sectors contribute to $33.6 billion worth of imports from China and about 25% of these imports can be substituted by local manufacturing without any significant additional investments, Acuite said.

"This would have a positive cascading effect on the economy as equivalent quantum of revenues would not only be added to the turnover of domestic enterprises including MSMEs but is also likely to translate to benefits through forward and backward linkages, better economies of scale along with cost competitiveness and importantly, enhancing the scope of employment generation," Acuite said.

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