Rep. Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, offered some advice Tuesday to President Trump about rumors that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis may soon leave the administration.
“The president does not ask my advice. If he were to ask my advice, I would say keep Secretary Mattis there as long as you possibly can,” Thornberry told a gathering of defense reporters.
Public speculation has grown in recent weeks that Mattis may leave the administration after the midterm elections due to differences with Trump on foreign policy.
Accounts in Bob Woodward’s new book Fear: Trump in the White House that Mattis compared Trump’s understanding of policy to a “fifth- or sixth-grader” added to the tension.
“I think he is a great secretary of defense who has tremendous credibility on Capitol Hill, around the world. I think he has done a really great job, and I would do everything I could to keep him there as long as possible,” Thornberry said when asked about the reports.
Mattis, who is from Richland, Wash., has said he is happy at the Pentagon, joking that he may retire on the Potomac River, and strongly denied Woodward’s reporting.
“I think he’ll go back to Washington state someday; I hope it’s at the end of the administration,” Thornberry said.
