How will Defense Secretary Jim Mattis transfer authority when 2018 comes to a close?
A U.S. defense official told Elizabeth McLaughlin, Pentagon reporter for ABC News, how Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting defense secretary sometime before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Mattis and Shanahan will be connected on a phone call by the Office of the Secretary of Defense communications and will follow an approved script that the Defense Department is not allowed to release.
The pair do not have to be physically in the Pentagon when the call takes place.
After the exchange ends at 11:59 p.m., the Defense Department will notify the White House that Shanahan has taken over as the top official at the DoD.
“The purpose of the call is to ensure all members within government know who is in command. It’s also a courtesy and a mark of respect for the incoming [defense secretary],” McLaughlin said on Twitter.
President Trump announced in a tweet earlier this month that Shanahan would be stepping in for Mattis on Jan. 1 rather than the end of February, when Mattis was initially expected to leave.
In a farewell message to Pentagon employees on Monday, Mattis encouraged the DoD workforce to “hold fast, alongside our allies.”
