Pentagon chief reduced to carrying out orders he dislikes
WAshington: From housing undocumented migrants to scrapping joint exercises with South Korea, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, onetime favourite of Donald Trump, now finds himself reduced to carrying out presidential orders despite his disapproval.
US media say the retired Marine general has been demoted in Washington’s power circles by the arrival of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, replacing the far less active Rex Tillerson, and by the appointment of the hawkish John Bolton as national security adviser.
Trump has grown distant from Mattis as his defence chief “slowwalks his policy directives”, administration sources told NBC News.
Former US intelligence chief James Clapper told CNN that Mattis may quit if Trump sidelines him.
“I think if it reached the point where he himself felt that he was just ineffective and had no voice, no influence, I don’t know how long he would linger,” Clapper said.
Mattis has faced a growing series of headaches recently after being caught off guard by snap decisions on subjects where he would normally be consulted.
The Pentagon was taken by surprise when Trump announced in early April that he would deploy the National Guard on the border with Mexico “until we can have a wall and proper security”.
On June 12, Trump halted joint manoeuvres between US and South Korean forces after a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jongun, calling the exercises “pro vocative” and “very expensive”.
Last week, Trump ordered the Pentagon to create a sixth branch of the military, a Space Force that would be independent of the Army and Air Force, something Mattis has publicly opposed.
In the past week, the Pentagon has been dragged into the mess surrounding Trump’s illegal immigration policy across the Mexican border, with orders to house migrant families on military bases, after a backlash against the practice of separating children from their parents.
Mattis had little choice but to comply: 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children will now be housed on military bases.
“While I recognise the political aspect, for us it is a logistic support effort,” he said on Monday.