National Security

Trump’s troop withdrawals making it harder to find a Mattis replacement

By Jamie McIntyre

Published December 21, 2018 1:49pm ET

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Trump’s troop withdrawals making it harder to find a Mattis replacement — Jim Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense, center, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks during a meeting with Baltic leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. Trump says the U.S. will expand exports of LNG to Baltic region and will hold a summit with the Baltic presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to discuss ways to expand economic opportunities. | (Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg)

In his farewell tweet to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, President Trump promised that “a new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly.”

But finding someone with the requisite credentials who also shares Trump’s world view is going to be complicated, given his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Both moves are outside the mainstream of national security thinking.

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Tag:

Afghanistan Donald Trump Jim Mattis Lindsey Graham Syria Tom Cotton