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In Tough Letter, Mattis Resigns as Secretary of Defense
Late Thursday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced that he will leave the Trump administration in February. In his resignation letter, Mattis told the President, “you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”
Trump offered kind words on Twitter for the retiring cabinet member. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” Trump tweeted. “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment. General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!”
The text of the resignation letter is included below:
Technically you are right. You’ve invented a hypothetical which would be worse than what has happened.
The hypothetical is self-contradictory, however, and thus not the alternative that folks are thinking about when they express alarm.
A person who has a conscience that prevents him from staying and obeying his superior, could not stay and subvert his superior, which requires that he lack conscience.
People wanted Mattis to stay because his exceptional competence and character made him one of the adults who are surrounding the President, constraining his most dangerous impulses and redirecting his energy in the direction of either responsible decisions and delegations, or relatively harmless pouting and Twittering. America can survive an effete tweeter as long as he selects real men and women to actually run the government.
I want to agree with this statement of @ejhill. I know the military is a large organization incapable of sharp turns, but much of what I’ve read and heard leads me to believe much of it is still heading in the wrong direction.
Unlikely as any opportunity would be, I wouldn’t dream of it. I’d be putting everyone in my life and every customer I’ve ever had under possible investigation.
This is not good.
Exactly, when you consider that:
You’d have to be either nuts or extremely, selflessly patriotic to take any job in this administration.
I reject your contemptuous view of President Trump, and, by extension, his supporters, like me.
Appoint Mueller then he will be forced to indict himself for something.
Cute.
Seriously though… I think it will be hard for the president to restaff this job. Who is he even considering? I mean… my mind is seriously blank.
Rand Paul?
Lindsey Graham has wanted it for a long time – don’t know if he’ll take it under these circumstances though.
Bingo!
Perhaps John Miller is available, or John Barron.
I do not think President Trump and Senator Graham see eye-to-eye at all.
I do not understand why this is the feeling here.
My parents voted for President Trump. I love them. I do not hold them in contempt.
But I do not care for President Trump’s isolationism or foreign policy. I do not. I cannot support his moves in that arena now anymore than I supported what I thought were grave errors on President Obama’s part.
While I am not related to any Kurds for whom my heart breaks, these are not theoretical things to me. My only child is impacted by this commander-and-chief’s vision, and he hasn’t sold me even a little by a statement in the Rose Garden.
I appreciate some of the things that President Trump has done in office. I like his judges. I thought Melania’s Christmas decorations were lovely. I even find myself defending Trump at times when I don’t actually agree with his positions because I feel like people attack my parents on a regular basis, and that feels personal and unfair.
But I believe in Jim Mattis. He inspires confidence. I feel he understands international politics. He is thoughtful and careful and has worn a uniform.
Conversely, I did not trust President Obama. I do not trust President Trump.
Understand, like many of the people who posted here (I suspect), I trusted the judgement of the Secretary of Defense and gave President Trump gigantic props for having him in his administration and following his expertise. This was a thing on which I could defend the man for whom I did not vote because it showed good judgement.
But now Mattis is leaving.
This is not petty or meant to be an attack of any Trump voter to say this, but I feel actual panic as a mother in this moment because I know my son’s service will extend beyond these final two years of Trump’s tenure, and I know that sometimes impulsive/political withdrawals create much longer, much bloodier deployments later.
When I criticize a public figure, please don’t take it personally, even if you disagree.
You reject my view of Trump but aren’t contemptuous of me.
Likewise, I reject your view of Trump but am not contemptuous of you.
We can disagree without being contemptuous of each other.
I actually clicked on these links hoping there was a general that I’ve overlooked who would make me feel better.
I don’t feel better.
It reminds me of a Yes, Minister line where someone comments that everyone in the Civil Service seems to offer the same advice and Sir Humphrey takes it as a compliment, evidence therefore that it must be the correct advice. Operationally the bureaucracy takes on a life and agenda of its own. The politicians are left to tinker around the edges.
I’m not sure who decided that occupying large parts of Syria while allowing Assad to nominally remain in power was in America’s interest. In fact, I’m confused as hell. I have alternately told that we need a reset with Russia and flexibility, that the 80s wanted their foreign policy back – and then I’m told they are our major geopolitical foe. I am told that shipping jobs to China will make them our friend but that they must be confronted in the South China Sea. (You know how I feel about the jobs part.)
Count me as the confused as well. I regularly ask anti-Trump twitter peeps what in the heck we were so afraid was being said to Russians. I seem to remember the reset. I also remember BO encouraging foreign investment in Russia. From the time of the 2016 election to inauguration, communication, and any communication in the past about investment, are now suddenly proof of treason.
Which is not to say I’ve ever had a handle on geo-politics, my world is micro and my concerns about what I’ve seen and heard about the military are micro as well (though they will probably have macro implications).
Barry had 8 Secretaries of Defense: Ashton Carter, Chuckles Hagel, Leon Panetta, and Robert Gates.
Let me get my non-hysterical calculator out here….let’s see. 8/4 = 2. So they averaged 2 years per secretary, under Barry. If you look up the actual timelines of their tenures, it’s not far off that average number. A couple of them are almost 2 years to the month.
So what happens when Secretaries of Defense resign? A new one gets appointed, and the country does not implode into a black hole of bad haircuts and Trump steaks. Amazingly, we all go on, somehow.
Administration officials turn over. They resign. Get fired. Take new jobs. Go get tacos. They move on.
But, apparently, we cannot.
Trust me. President Obama’s relationship with the military did not inspire confidence in the military community.
I feel the same about him and President Trump when it comes to this issue.
None of the aforementioned secretaries were in Mattis’ league from a knowledge of history, military history, understanding of defense assets and capabilities, military strategy, global power dynamics or from an intellectual perspective. Not that any of that is important.
Look we’re all happy that Trump is never petty, petulant and rash or ever shoots his mouth off without thinking matters through, so all of our concerns really are unwarranted. I’m sure everything will be fine. Move along. Nothing to see here.
If those are the stakes then it is worse than I thought.
Romney? Haley? Mattis? Sasse?
I still have a Mattis t-shirt; or a SMOD for President one, too…
I don’t think the stock market movement has much of anything to do with politics.
While I have no problem discounting Chuck Hagel, one does not have to diminish Mattis’ capabilities to dispute this. Robert Gates, for one, is an extremely qualified and talented person.
Most of the military personnel who endorsed him are Medal of Honor military folk or others who are about 80 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Donald_Trump_2016_presidential_campaign_endorsements#Retired_U.S._military_personnel
Mattis was a general, not a politician though. That has many advantages but a few disadvantages too in not wanting to upset the entrenched bureaucracy about things you do not care about.
Actually, it does to this extent: the market hates uncertainty.
No kidding? It’s almost as if I wasn’t paying attention for those 8 years.
The Secretary could be a double-extra genius, but that doesn’t mean he or she would make a good Secretary. Which doesn’t apply to Mattis, a guy I loved to see in the job.
And Trumps shoots his mouth off? Since when?
You’re really going to need to cough something up more interesting than “Trump’s a jerk, so everything will be a disaster.” It’s 2 years old now.
I say all this not liking Trump, at all. Didn’t vote for him, I left the top of the ballet blank. Probably won’t vote for him next time.
The market is uncertainty.