Mattis downplays Trump’s comments on ‘60 Minutes’
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
Defense Secretary Jim Mat— tis played down suggestions he was in danger of losing his job, as he made a case for leaving the U.S. military out of politics and asserting the country’s sharp divisions have no place amongeither the men and women who serve or the officers who lead them.
One day after President Donald Trump suggested Mattis is a Democrat, the retired four-star Marine general brandished bipartisan support for the U.S. mili- tary in Congress as a point of pride, not shame.
“When I was 18, I joined the Marine Corps, and in the U.S. military we are proudly apolitical,” Mattis told reporters aboard a 20-hour flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from Washing- ton. “By that, I mean that in our duties, we were brought up to obey the elected com- mander in chief, whoever that is.”
He said he had not registered as either a Democrat or a Republican and sought to dismiss reports his rela- tionship with Trump has soured in recent months.
But those reports were only amplified Sunday when CBS broadcast a “60 Minutes” interview with Trump in which the president said Mattis “may leave” and “I think he’s sort of a Demo- crat, if you want to know the truth.”
Mattis said he had not watched the interview. “I’m on his team,” he said. “We have never talked about me leaving.”
Two hours later, Mattis reappeared before reporters to say the president had just called him from Air Force One to reassure him he was “100 percent” behind his defense secretary.
But administration officials said Trump’s comments on “60 Minutes” reflected the president’s distaste for the very bipartisanship and political neutrality Mattis constantly espouses. Trump doesn’t want that, aides say.
Rather, the president wants public loyalty and political support from his Cabinet. Mattis’ belief that the U.S. military should be above the political fray clashes with the president’s view that the military and its generals belong to him, one administration official said.
And even if Mattis is not a registered Democrat, he is viewed more warmly by Democrats than any other me mber of the Trump ad ministration. Mattis famously clashed with President Barack Obama over Iran policy when he was the head of U.S. Central Command, but he had a good relationship with Hillary Clinton and was viewed by many as a likely candidate for defense secretary had she won the 2016 presidential election.
She didn’t, and he became defense secretary anyway, initially embraced by Trump, whom Mattis only met for t he f irst time at his job interview during the transition. The two men got off to a great start, with Mattis talking Trump out of torturing detainees and advocating on behalf of U.S. alliances around the world.
But in recent months, strains have started to show, in part because, aides say, Trump has come to resent the narrative of Mattis as the only adult in the room in a chaotic White House.