Free Republic

Friday on CNN, host John King played a clip of a new interview between former Trump administration communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former chief of staff John Kelly. Kelly was commenting on former Defense Secretary James Mattis denouncing the Trump administration for using Washington, DC police and National Guard troops to clear out protesters from Lafayette Square for Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church.

James Mattis, the esteemed Marine general who resigned as secretary of defense in December 2018 to protest Donald Trump’s Syria policy, has, ever since, kept studiously silent about Trump’s performance as president. But he has now broken his silence, writing an extraordinary broadside in which he denounces the president for dividing the nation, and accuses him of ordering the U.S. military to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens. “I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is...

In late November 2016, I was enjoying Thanksgiving break in my hometown on the Columbia River in Washington state when I received an unexpected call from Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Would I meet with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the job of secretary of defense? I had taken no part in the election campaign and had never met or spoken to Mr. Trump, so to say that I was surprised is an understatement. Further, I knew that, absent a congressional waiver, federal law prohibited a former military officer from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of departing military...

Oh snap, grab my belt, we’re going deep. This move is not unexpected; especially for those who have followed the Trump Doctrine for the past two years. President Trump has announced reception of a notification from Defense Secretary James Mattis that he intends to retire. The move makes sense on multiple levels. President Trump has been executing a policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approach. Initially, the traditional military interventionist approach couldn’t just be reversed or dispatched; and James Mattis was the bridge to...