WORLD Defence chief in an Oval offence
US DEFENCE Secretary Jim Mattis has abruptly said he is quitting after falling out with President Donald Trump over his foreign policies, one day after the Commander In Chief rebuffed top advisers and decided to pull all US troops out of Syria.
Mr Mattis announced plans to resign after a face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump yesterday in which they aired their differences, a White House official says.
“Because you have a right to a Secretary of Defence 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,” Mr Mattis said in his resignation letter, released by the Pentagon.
Mr Trump announced on Wednesday that US troops in Syria would be withdrawn, a decision that up-ended American policy in the region.
On Thursday, officials said the president was considering a substantial US pullout from the 17-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. Mr Mattis, a former US Marine Corps General, had opposed the decision on Syria, an official said.
His letter indicated he disagreed with Mr Trump’s isolationist policies, writing it was his belief the US needed to maintain strong alliances and show allies respect.
Mr Trump has withdrawn the US from several international agreements since taking office in January 2017. An- nouncing Mr Mattis’s departure on Twitter, Mr Trump said he would nominate a successor soon.
“General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defence for the past two years,” he said.
The two men met in the Oval Office on Thursday where Mr Mattis told Mr Trump of his plans to resign, the senior White House official said.
“He and the president had differences on some issues. I don’t know if it was specifically Syria,” the official said.
Mr Mattis joins a long list of former Trump administration senior figures who have either quit or been removed, some unceremoniously such as secretary of state Rex Tillerson, whom Mr Trump fired via Twitter in March.
Speculation Mr Mattis might not last long in his post grew in October when Trump said in a CBS interview the general was “sort of a Democrat” and might be leaving.