President Barack Obama fired General James Mattis, the head of Central Command, without even calling the general to let him know he was being replaced.

“I am told that General Mattis was travelling and in a meeting when an aide passed him a note telling him that the Pentagon had announced his replacement as head of Central Command. It was news to him — he hadn’t received a phone call or a heads-up from anyone at the Pentagon or the White House,” Thomas E. Ricks reports.