I never trusted Mattis (or Kelley or McMaster or Tillerson).
It was the same kind of bipartisan gushing over the supposedly unassailable character of Mueller.
The slimy Steve Pieczenik, who claimed to be involved in the soft coup from military and intelligence that backed Trump’s election, still gushes about Mattis. But he also a few months into the admin claimed that if Trump wasn’t fit to serve he would be removed from office, around the same time that he also threatened that Trump would be removed if he didn’t stop mucking around with women in the WH and thus creating a security threat.
That was about the same time that Roger Stone while quite skeptical of the “generals” around Trump raised the alarm that Trump was slowly being drugged via his Diet Cokes through the day such that Trump was beginning to slur and lose his sharpness by late in the afternoon. Kelly was also insisting on listening in directly to everyone Trump talked to on the phone, etc.
I well believed Stone in his reporting.
That reported drugging apparently stopped, of course, and gradually Trump got more control over Kelly such that he was supposedly effectively sidelined for months before actually leaving.
But after those crazy warnings by Pieczenik, he effectively stopped even attempting to bring any insider info, which he had traded in for years, to the public. He now offers mostly milk-toast takes on foreign affairs, bits of history, or stock market advice. I suspect he was seen as having let his ego slip and say too much publicly.
What I’m getting at is that the old generals and intel guys who backed Trump’s run for office IMO only backed him conditionally insofar as he did just what they wanted—and with a short leash on him. Early in that first year I think they were ready to replace him if the going got too tough.
Qanon didn’t appear until all of that early intensity had quieted down. Mattis now reportedly is mulling a run for president himself in 2020. Trump IMO still has snakes throughout his admin. “Insiders” may pose as supporters without actually being so.
*Kelly*