Trump-Mattis tiff may signal the end
More D.C. confirmation battles loom
WASHINGTON — President Trump has brought his long-simmering tension with Defense Secretary James Mattis to the fore in a new interview suggesting what he once denied: Mattis may be heading for the exit.
The timing, on the heels of one of the most contentious confirmation hearings in recent memory to install Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, means more high-stakes confirmation battles could lie ahead, including one for outgoing United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and the potential replacement for Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
It also reflects a White House headed by a president who is increasingly frustrated with his team, and more willing to follow his own counsel in matters of domestic and foreign policy.
“It could be that he is,” Trump told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” last night when asked if Mattis is on the way out.
“I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said of Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general whose military record Trump once touted. “But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington.”
Trump’s comment echoes media reports from September — denied by the White House at the time — that Trump has gradually seen Mattis as less of an unimpeachable military authority and more as a political operative as they have increasingly clashed over policy.
Mattis slowed plans by Trump to ban transgender troops from serving in the military, pausing Trump’s tweeted policy announcement by conducting a study of the matter while letting those already serving continue.
Mattis also disagreed with Trump’s decision to halt largescale joint military exercises with South Korea as the U.S. has tried to engage directly with North Korea to convince Kim Jong Un to halt its nuclear program.
Trump reportedly has become irritated with Mattis’ reputation of being the “adult in the room,” and is looking to make a number of changes to his Cabinet after the midterms, including naming a new attorney general after a long public feud with Sessions.
But such potential moves have rattled some veteran military experts.
Retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Clinton administration, called Mattis “a pillar of good judgement, integrity, and deep experience dealing with a chaotic Administration.”
“The Senate must watch over the Attorney General and (Secretary of Defense) positions or we will be in peril,” McCaffrey tweeted.