Outgoing Defence Secretary Jim Mattis. Photos / AP file
US President Donald Trump, who aides said has been seething about news coverage of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis's scathing resignation letter, abruptly announced that he was removing Mattis two months before his planned departure.
Mattis' deputy at the Pentagon, Patrick Shanahan, is being installed as acting defence secretary.
Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, will assume the top job on an acting capacity beginning January 1, Trump said.
The President made the decision hastily in reaction to negative news coverage, according to senior Administration officials, one of whom said Trump was eager to retaliate against Mattis and show up the widely respected former general.
Unlike Mattis, Shanahan has not served in the military and has little foreign policy or government experience.
Trump plans to conduct a wide-ranging search for a permanent replacement and is interested in candidates from outside the Administration, one official said.
Mattis resigned in protest last week after Trump announced the withdrawal of US troops from Syria over the strong objections of Mattis and others on the national security team.
Brett McGurk, the top US envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis (Islamic State), also resigned in protest over Trump's Syria decision.
In his resignation letter, Mattis delivered a sharp rebuke of Trump's worldview and cast the President's foreign policy positions as a threat to the US.
Mattis said in the letter that he would resign his post on February 28, to allow for a smooth transition to the next defence secretary. But Trump decided to hasten the process, announcing on Twitter that Shanahan would replace Mattis imminently.
"I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defence, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defence starting January 1, 2019," Trump wrote. "Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!"
The announcement caught top officials at the Pentagon off guard.
The news was communicated to Mattis today, one official said. Trump himself has not spoken to Mattis since Friday, when the secretary resigned, another official said.
"I think it's fair to say that there is a lot of uncertainty about this week," said a defence official who is close to Mattis. "I think all of this is coming down in the last hour."
Shanahan was travelling away from Washington when Trump tweeted his decision. A spokesman for Shanahan, Army Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Buccino, said that Shanahan would continue to serve as directed by the President.
A spokeswoman for Mattis, Dana White, said that the outgoing secretary will focus over the next week on ensuring a smooth transition and that the Pentagon remains focused on the defence of the nation.
Mattis was due to give testimony on Capitol Hill regarding the new national security strategy, which probably would have resulted in tense questions about his resignation and differences with Trump. While Mattis still could end up testifying after leaving the Pentagon, his early dismissal by Trump reduces that chance.
Trump is increasingly cut off from the judgment of others, making quick decisions on his own, such as forcing Mattis out early https://t.co/hg8pzCOKiI
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 23, 2018
The abrupt nature of Mattis' departure raises questions about who else may leave the Pentagon in coming weeks, thrusting the department further into chaos.
Army Secretary Mark Esper, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Navy Secretary Richard Spencer all have characterised their relationships with Mattis as close, and Wilson has said that she chose to serve in the Administration specifically at the request of Mattis.
"He told me, 'You're my first choice, and there's big gap between you and my second choice. And I'm not going to talk to anyone else until you tell me whether you will do this if asked'," Wilson said in an interview last year. "It's one of those moments where you know your draft number has come up, and you're supposed to serve."
Trump initially praised Mattis for serving as defence secretary "with distinction" and achieving "tremendous progress". But as he consumed media coverage in the hours and days that followed Mattis' resignation, Trump vented to advisers about the narrative that took hold of the revered four-star Marine Corps general and military intellectual walking out on Trump because he believed the President's erratic decisions were threatening the world order.
Although Mattis' letter initially annoyed the president, the coverage of it was even more difficult to stomach, according to a senior Administration official. Trump told aides that he especially resented the narrative of Mattis as a manager of Trump who served as a human guardrail against the President's impulses, the official said.
If Mattis really thought his resignation would leave the United States in serious danger from the President, would he still resign?
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) December 23, 2018
In recent days, Trump went so far as to tell White house aides that he does not need Mattis and that his defence secretary was not as important a figure as others believed, the official said.
Trump was not shy about sharing his frustrations publicly. Yesterday, he complained on Twitter that he was not getting enough credit for the Syria withdrawal: "If anybody but your favourite President, Donald J. Trump, announced that, after decimating Isis in Syria, we were going to bring our troops back home (happy & healthy), that person would be the most popular hero in America. With me, hit hard instead by the Fake News Media. Crazy!"
Then the President took a shot directly at Mattis, with a bit of revisionist history. When he picked Mattis to be defence secretary before the start of his presidency, Trump showered praise on him, revelling in the general's battlefield valour, calling him by his nickname "Mad Dog" and comparing him to the decorated World War II Army general George Patton.
"He is one of the most effective generals that we've had in many, many decades, an extraordinary leader of our time who has committed his life to his love for our country," Trump said in a December 6, 2016, speech announcing the nomination. "General Mattis is the living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto, 'semper fidelis,' always faithful. And the American people are fortunate that man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defence under his leadership."
That frees Former Secretary Mattis to speak to a Joint Session of Congress - or the House alone if the Senate is cowed - sometime early after the 116th convenes January 3 https://t.co/5EATHnooU9
— David Frum (@davidfrum) December 23, 2018
But yesterday, Trump wrote on Twitter: "When President Obama ingloriously fired Jim Mattis, I gave him a second chance. Some thought I shouldn't, I thought I should. Interesting relationship-but I also gave all of the resources that he never really had. Allies are very important-but not when they take advantage of US."
Trump also lashed out at McGurk's resignation, casting the top diplomat as a bit player. The President wrote in a tweet, "Brett McGurk, who I do not know, was appointed by President Obama in 2015. Was supposed to leave in February but he just resigned prior to leaving. Grandstander? The Fake News is making such a big deal about this nothing event!"
In replacing Mattis, at least temporarily, Trump has picked Shanahan, who made his name as an executive at Boeing, where he worked for decades, dealing at times with the aviation behemoth's commercial aircraft and missile defence programmes.
Trump had complained to aides that Mattis did not share his enthusiasm for negotiating defence contracts, and he likes that Shanahan took a special interest in such matters, according to a senior Administration official.
My latest: After James Mattis resigned, Trump's America is slinking off the world stage https://t.co/QHcX7t2ZMQ via @usatoday
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 23, 2018
Since his arrival at the Pentagon, Shanahan has emphasised making the department more efficient and business-friendly and has won plaudits at the White House by pushing through Trump's vision for a space force, against the wishes of many of the building's leaders and uniformed brass.
Shanahan also has overseen the Pentagon's audit, its development of a new missile defence policy that still hasn't been released and a fledgling effort to reduce waste in military expenditures.
Shanahan lacks the kind of foreign policy experience that has become customary among defence secretaries, putting someone atop the Pentagon who lacks the deeply seated views on matters such as withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan that Mattis held.
If Shanahan stays on, he is unlikely to push strongly held views on those conflict - and, when paired with the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, could usher in a shift in power further toward the military brass.
With Mattis’ abrupt ouster and Shanahan now acting SecDef, Boeing’s growing clout with U.S. President Donald Trump’s Pentagon can no longer be ignored. Good report by @laraseligman https://t.co/5B2se0IQm6
— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) December 23, 2018
Residential areas in both countries have suffered from deadly strikes in the conflict.