Don’t be surprised if Patrick Shanahan, the former deputy who replaced Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an acting capacity, is still around at the end of President Trump’s first term.
The conventional wisdom around Washington is that Trump is having trouble finding anyone qualified to take the job, once Mattis resigned on principle after the president ordered all U.S. troops out of Syria against his advice.
Unlike Mattis, who was a legendary commander and a deeply read student of war and strategy, Shanahan has no military experience, aside from his 17 months at the Pentagon as Mattis’ No. 2.
But Shanahan has a halo of his own, a reputation as a “Mr. Fix-it” at Boeing, where he worked for more than 30 years and where he’s credited with shepherding Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner through its most critical development period.
Trump seems particularly enamored with Shanahan’s business acumen, which he sees as a marked contrast to many of his generals, who he frequently complains lack the business savvy to prevent allies from taking advantage of the U.S.
“Shanahan is a good man, and he’s done a great job,” Trump said during a Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Iraq. “And he’s a good buyer. I wanted somebody that could buy, because I’m giving a lot of money and I don’t want it to be wasted.”
In Shanahan, Trump sees a kindred spirit, someone who knows how to drive a hard bargain and how to bring projects in on time and under budget.
At Boeing, Shanahan “did a great job,” said Trump. “Very responsible for the success of a certain plane, the Dreamliner. And he’s a respected man. He could be there for a long time. I mean, I’m in no rush.”
Officially, the search is on for a replacement for Mattis and several names have leaked out of the White House, including former Army Vice Chief of Staff Jack Keane, former Navy Secretary and former Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, and former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, who just stepped down from John McCain’s former seat to return to private life.
Keane turned down the job, citing personal reasons, although he was also on record opposing Trump’s Syria withdrawal decision.
In response to a story in the New York Times about Trump’s consideration of Webb, a Democrat who embraced Trump after the 2016 election, the president tweeted that the Times story was fake news. “I’m sure he is a fine man, but I don’t know Jim, and never met him,” Trump said, adding that “Patrick Shanahan, who is Acting Secretary of Defense, is doing a great job!”
Shanahan, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2017 as deputy defense secretary, can serve in an acting capacity for “an indefinite period of time at the direction and discretion of the president,” according to an administration official.
Trump has recently expressed a preference for acting Cabinet members, who can be replaced whenever he wants, without the stigma of a firing and the bad press that goes with it.
“I like ‘acting.’ It gives me more flexibility,” Trump said when asked about the high number of positions filled by acting secretaries.
But perhaps Shanahan’s most endearing quality is his disinclination to push back against Trump’s whims, which can sometimes seem to come out of left field and flout conventional military advice.
When Trump grew frustrated with the Mattis Pentagon slow-rolling his idea to create a Space Force as a separate military service, Shanahan stepped up and saluted smartly, famously telling Pentagon officials, “We are not the Department of No.”
Shanahan became the champion of Space Force and headed the team that has drawn up a plan to submit to Congress this year.
That unquestioning subservience was also on display in his first Cabinet meeting, in which Shanahan was seated to the president’s immediate left.
When Trump asked him to say a few words about the need for the military to help build a border wall, Shanahan didn’t flinch.
“The Army Corps of Engineers is dialed in on doing this cost-effectively, quickly, and with the right amount of urgency as to where we can build additional stand-up walls quickly,” Shanahan said while the TV cameras rolled. “The threat is real. The risks are real. We need to control our borders.”
It was another contrast to Mattis, who was known to often sidestep direct support of Trump’s controversial polices and tended to praise his troops more than his commander in chief.
Shanahan is as smart as they come, with two advanced degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in mechanical engineering and business.
And he’s well-aware that the president already has plenty of advisers telling him things he doesn’t want to hear.
Trump has pronounced Shanahan “a pleasure to work with,” and that could be his ticket to acting as defense secretary for the next two years.
