Steve Hilton: Mattis, Kelly marched to the establishment beat. Trump was right to fire them
The new year began as the old year ended - with the establishment up in arms over generals leaving the Trump administration. How would the world survive the departures of John Kelly and James Mattis?
....as reported by Bob Woodward, James Mattis -- yes, Trump's own defense secretary -- plotted to block the president's trade policy. Woowdward wrote: “Mattis and Cohn agreed. Together they would fight Trump on this...They met for lunch at the Pentagon to develop an action plan...One cause of the problem was the president’s fervent belief that annual trade deficits of about $500 billion harmed the American economy. He was on a crusade to impose tariffs and quotas despite Cohn's best efforts to educate him about the benefits of free trade. How could they convince, and in their frank view, educate the president?"....
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly boasted to Democrat lawmakers last year that Donald Trump had not been "fully informed" when he promised a border wall and that the president had "evolved" on the issue after being educated by Kelly. He confirmed this to Fox News' anchor Bret Baier in an interview.
“He’s very definitely changed his attitude towards the DACA issue and even the wall, once we briefed him," he said.
Er, no, John Kelly. The president didn't change his attitude. You tried to change the president's attitude. ....
James Mattis, John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn and all the rest of you in the self-regarding and self-aggrandizing Committee to Save America -- come on, then. Tell us. Tell us now, or we'll have to conclude that your real problem is with President Trump's policies -- policies which aim to overturn a half-century of your elitist ideological orthodoxy and which the American people explicitly voted for in an election.