Mattis just latest to go from hero to zero in Trump’s eyes
President’s feuds with top aides could end up costing him votes
WASHINGTON — First, President Donald Trump called Jim Mattis “one of the most effective generals and extraordinary leaders of our time.”
Now, he says his former secretary of defence “is the world’s most overrated General.”
John Kelly was once a great Homeland Security secretary who would be an even better White House chief of staff, “if it’s possible.”
Last week, Trump said he is an also-ran who “was not in my inner-circle, was totally exhausted by the job, and in the end just slinked away into obscurity.”
Jeff Sessions entered the administration being hailed by the president as “a worldclass legal mind” who was “greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”
Now, Trump demeans him as someone who “didn’t have a clue,” “let our country down,” “was played like a drum” and is not to be trusted by Alabama voters weighing whether to return him to the Senate.
And Rex Tillerson went from being “the embodiment of the American dream” whose “tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State” to “’dumb as a rock’ and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary
of State.”
There are few constants in the tumult of the Trump administration, which has had far more staff departures than any recent president.
But one rule of thumb is that if you speak ill of Trump — and a remarkable number of former officials have — the president will strike back.
But beyond illustrating Trump’s counterpunching ethos, it’s a pattern that raises serious questions about his ability to fill some of the most important posts in government and why he continually hires top officials he later comes to describe as incompetents.
If they were such stooges, why were they hired in the first place? And if Trump didn’t know enough about them, what type of vetting took place?
Former aides say the answer for why the president turns on so many officials is that Trump can’t stand any public dissent or criticism — and grows frustrated when aides push back on his impulses. His current White House staff, officials said, does far less of that.
“President Trump’s approach to personnel management resembles that of a rich man who disowns his relatives because they do not show him proper deference or respect,” Rutgers University political science professor Ross K. Baker said. “Anyone who works for him appears to need to adhere to a kind of unwritten nondisclosure agreement. Breaching that agreement even in a minor way brings the president’s wrath down on them.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
While his feuds with some former aides, such as former communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former adviser Omarosa Manigault, seemed more like colourful moments in a chaotic presidency, his feuds with Mattis and Kelly could be more politically perilous.
Both men were seen early on as proof that Trump could attract top talent to his administration and their appointments quelled fears among congressional Republicans about who would fill key administration spots.
A senior administration official said that the view inside the West Wing is that Mattis’s statement this week won’t damage the president with swing voters by itself, but it shows vulnerability that other Republicans who previously have not criticized the president may be moved to do so.
Mattis drew laughs last year when he mocked Trump’s insults during a charity dinner, a day after Trump had called him “the world’s most overrated general,”
“I’m honoured to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,” Mattis said, referring to the famed performer.
“So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals and frankly that sounds pretty good to me. And you do have to admit between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.”