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The president needs help uprooting a Washington foreign-policy establishment that has mindlessly kept the U.S. military involved in unnecessary wars across the globe. The next top military leader must share this goal. Secretary of Defense James Mattis is a good man and a patriot who has served his country with distinction. President Trump was right, however, in asking for his resignation because Mattis represents the Washington foreign-policy establishment that has mindlessly kept the U.S. military involved in unnecessary wars across the globe. President Donald Trump ran on a realist platform, decrying “stupid wars,” and vowing that there would be “...

Don’t get me wrong, Christmas was wonderful: from the Nutcracker performance on the 23rd right through the turkey dinner with all the trimmings + five late yesterday. And now it’s Boxing Day, and that’s where I’d like to be: nestled down in a box to sleep for about 48 hours. As my batteries grow older it seems to take longer to recharge them once they’ve been run down.And I feel I need a full charge to deal with people who told us in 2016/17 that PDJT was a warmonger who would entangle us in conflicts all over the globe and...

“Since Washington crossed the Delaware at Christmas in 1776, American troops have missed holidays at home to defend our experiment in democracy,” Mattis said in a 20-second video. “To all you lads and lasses holding the line in 2018, on land, at sea, or in the air, thanks for keeping the faith. Merry Christmas and may God hold you safe,” Mattis concluded. The video was recorded Dec. 19, one day before Mattis submitted his scathing resignation letter

[The outgoing defense secretary had a good rapport with the 2016 Democratic nominee. Not so much with the president he ultimately worked for.] During the 2016 presidential campaign, James Mattis predicted that he would be courted to serve in a Hillary Clinton administration in the likelihood that she would win the presidency. Instead, Mattis ended up working nearly two years as Secretary of Defense for Donald Trump, a president who routinely undermined his own national security team and would mock Mattis by calling him a “Democrat” or “Moderate Dog.” Mattis' resignation on Thursday, though abrupt, came as no surprise to...

President Trump on Sunday said deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary of the department on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure of Jim Mattis — after a string of disagreements between Trump and Mattis. The Hill reported that Shanahan wasn’t close with Mattis; however he is liked by the White House. “He’s not a policy or geopolitics guy. He’s a business guy,” a source told Defense News. “But he’s spent the last year learning from the best. And Shanahan is known for having a good relationship” with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The...

Defense secretaries come and go. President Obama had four of them in eight years, who had some unkind things to say about his leadership or lack of it. There was no talk of chaos or of the only adult in the room leaving.

Irritated with the criticism and fallout from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' resignation, President Donald Trump on Sunday pushed the Pentagon chief out the door two months earlier than planned, an acrimonious end to a tense relationship that had been eroding in recent months. In a series of tweets, Trump appeared to questions why he had put Mattis in his Cabinet in the first place, and said deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure. The sudden change strips Mattis of any chance to further frame national security policy or...

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Defense Secretary James Mattis will depart the Pentagon by January 1, a date earlier than anticipated, and will appoint Patrick Shanahan as acting Secretary. The president’s announcement, made via Twitter, comes days after Mattis stunned Washington by announcing his resignation, prompted by what the former marine said were policy differences with Trump. Shanahan is the Pentagon’s number 2 official.

... The more lasting damage will derive from the shoddy, humiliating way Mr. Trump treated the secretary and his generals on such a core military issue as deployments in Syria. Jim Mattis is not some neoconservative bent on staying in Syria for years. He is less hawkish on Syria and Iran than national security adviser John Bolton or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Yet in deciding to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Mr. Trump acted on his own impulses with little more than cursory consultation with his military advisers. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,...

riday in response to Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis announcing his resignation, MSNBC analyst John Heilemann suggested on “Morning Joe” that a lot of people “think it would be best for the country” if President Donald Trump were not to finish out his term. “[Y]ou have this resignation, historic in the way that Joe suggested, that I think for a lot of Republicans in the Senate who looked at Mattis as the guardrail, as the — I hate the phrase adult in the room, I’m not going the use it because I think it kind of diminishes others who...

As has been the case in the Trump era, the Washington “establishment” — politicians, the media, and the commentariat — are in a tizzy over recent personnel changes undertaken by the president, up to and including the two most recent changes. Earlier this month the White House announced that Chief of Staff John Kelly would be leaving early next year. Kelly’s announced departure has now been followed up this week with news that Defense Secretary James Mattis has either been fired or has resigned, though it seems more likely it was the latter, given the lengthy letter he wrote to...

American Thinker readers were warned about General Mattis over a year ago in this article. Briefly, Mattis was and remains a supporter of global warming. The issue of global warming continues to be a reliable and simple litmus test. If someone believes in global warming, then you can be sure he is a globalist who loathes Western civilization. (SNIP) Since that article, Mattis's charge sheet has expanded somewhat. Trump wanted to get trannies out of the military simply because of the costs involved in having them. Mattis pushed back and slow-walked the order. Gender dysphoria is one of the worst...

...Gen. Jack Keane and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., are considered the frontrunners to replace Mattis...For Trump to nominate Keane, however, he would have to swallow Keane’s hawkish stance...and his recent criticism of the move to pull out of Syria, which the retired general called a “huge strategic mistake." “Clearly, we're repeating the Obama mistake of premature withdrawal, which got us ISIS,” Keane said on Fox News’ “America's Newsroom” on Thursday. “In my judgment, we need to stick to it and finish the job,” Keane added, noting that the withdrawal of American troops will give “a victory of strategic proportions” to...

One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense,...

President Trump said Thursday evening that Defense Secretary James Mattis will be retiring in February, in a shock announcement adding to the list of the president's outgoing Cabinet members after his second year in office. Mattis will step down "with distinction" after serving in his role for two years, the president said on Twitter. "During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment," Trump tweeted. "General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense...

General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years. During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting....

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was livid last month when he summoned top military officials to a video conference at the Pentagon to press them about an investigation into a 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four Americans on a Green Beret team. His anger, Pentagon officials said, came from seeing news reports that junior officers were being reprimanded for the botched Niger mission while the officers directly above them were not. Days later, a senior officer who had largely escaped punishment was told he would be reprimanded. Another senior officer’s actions before and around the time of the mission were...

Keynote Address with the U.S. Secretary of Defense, The Honorable James N. Mattis. Moderated by Bret Baier, Fox News

Hours after images of migrants climbing a border wall in San Diego went viral, the Homeland Security Department deployed razor wire Wednesday to prevent a repeat. The immigrants, who said they were the vanguard of the caravans streaming north through Mexico, ascended the fence Tuesday in a display of defiance. Video and photos showed them cheering and jeering atop the slat-style fence. Although no arrests or confrontations were reported, Homeland Security took immediate steps to try to keep others from climbing by deploying concertina wire, which coils over itself, creating a thorough barrier. “As we have said repeatedly, being a...

More than 100 House Democrats told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday he should not send additional military personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border. A handful of ranking members from related House committees and 104 rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers sent the top Pentagon official a letter Thursday to say, first and foremost, they do not approve of the operation