MATTIS BASHES TRUMP FOR DIVIDING U.S.
WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary rebuke, former defense secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests near the White House and said his former boss was setting up a “false conflict” between the military and civilian society.
“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis wrote.
Mattis, who retired as defense secretary in December 2018 to protest Trump’s Syria policy, had a scathing description of Trump’s walk to a historic church Monday to pose with a Bible after law enforcement forcibly cleared Lafayette Square of mostly peaceful protesters.
Mattis said he never dreamed troops “would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Mattis took particular issue with the use of force to move back protesters so Trump could visit St. John’s Church.
“We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution,” Mattis said.