President-elect Trump will nominate legendary retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis as his defense secretary, despite a law barring recently retired generals from running the Pentagon, Trump announced Thursday at a rally in Cincinnati.
Trump teased supporters at his Ohio rally by asking them not to share news of Mattis’ nomination, which he said he won’t officially announce until next week.
“Don’t let it outside of this room, so I will not tell you that one of our great great generals. … we are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump said. “But we’re not announcing it until Monday, so don’t tell anybody.”
Trump went praised Mattis’ military record and reputation among the national security community.
“He’s the closest thing we have have to [Gen.] George Patton,” Trump said.
Mattis, beloved by his troops and widely respected by military and civilian leaders alike, is expected to easily get a waiver from Congress to the federal statute that requires the defense secretary to come from civilian life, or be out of uniform seven years.
“I would ordinarily have some concerns about civilian-military relationships and civilian control and so on but not with Jim Mattis,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CBS before the announcement. “Jim has a deep sense of history, he’s got a great strategic mind and folks in uniform love him. I think he would be a great choice.”
Mattis, who led the 1st Marine Division into Iraq in 2003, and served as U.S. Central Command chief before retiring in 2013, is known both for his quotable military maxims, as well his depth of knowledge of military history and nuanced strategic thinking.
William Cohen, a Republican who served as defense secretary in the Clinton administration, said he doesn’t think the choice of Mattis will undermine the bedrock principle of civilian control of the military.
“It depends upon the individual,” Cohen said in an interview on MSNBC this week. “I like General Mattis. I know him well. He is a very serious warrior, but also a serious scholar. So I would have total confidence in his judgment in being secretary of defense.”
Mattis, 66, has never married, which has earned him the nickname “The Warrior Monk.” His “Mad Dog” moniker comes from both his devotion to duty, and he penchant for speaking his mind.
Some of the generals most famous Mattisisms include, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet,” “Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact,” and “Demonstrate to the world there is ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a U.S. Marine.”
In 2013, Mattis’s hardline stance against Iran was said to have put him at odds with the Obama administration, which at the time was in the throes of negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, and reportedly it led to his early retirement as the four-star general.
But Mattis is not dogmatic, something he demonstrated at a speech he gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in April.
Mattis made a point of citing how careful research and thoughtful analysis can change he views.
“I am routinely copying down things that CSIS puts out and finding a lot of value in my own thinking, shifting my own thinking,” Mattis said in praise of the Washington think tank. “CSIS doesn’t just make assertions. It also includes discussions where you actually come out with something that is perhaps a little better each time you go through a cycle.
In that speech Mattis outlined some positions that would put him at odds the the president-elect, for instance labeling the Iran deal as flawed, but also acknowledging it has some advantages, and suggesting it’s too late to tear it up and start again.
“I don’t think that we can take advantage of some new president, Republican or Democrat, and say we’re not going to live up to our word on this agreement. I believe we would be alone if we did, and unilateral economic sanctions from us would not have anywhere near the impact of an allied approach to this.”
Back when he had no idea he would be Trump’s defense secretary, Mattis also bristled at President Obama’s characterization of some U.S. allies as “freeloaders,” and in what might seem impolitic now, Mattis said he thought it was something Trump would say, not Obama.
“I would just say that for a sitting U.S. president to see our allies as freeloaders is nuts.”
Perhaps the clearest break between Mattis and President-elect Trump was over waterboarding and torture.
As Trump revealed in his sit-down with the New York Times last month, Mattis had Trump rethinking his endorsement of waterboarding, and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques
Mattis said, “I’ve never found it to be useful,” Trump told the Times, adding he was very impressed with Mattis’ argument. “Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I’ll do better.”
Mattis’ stellar reputation puts him on the glide path to confirmation, and his Senate hearing is likely to be a love fest.
“General Mattis is one of the finest military officers of his generation and an extraordinary leader who inspires a rare and special admiration of his troops,” said Armed Service’s Committee Chairman John McCain. “He is a forthright strategic thinker. His integrity is unshakable and unquestionable.”
McCain, who will chair Mattis’s confirmation hearing, told the Washington Examiner that he would write the bill to grant Mattis an waiver of the seven-year rule.
Shortly after the president-elect met with Mattis at Trump Tower in New York, McCain issued a statement saying, “General Mattis has a clear understanding of the many challenges facing the Department of Defense, the U.S. military, and our national security. I hope he has an opportunity to serve America again.”
Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.
