McChrystal was forced to resign in 2010 after making disparaging comments about Obama Administration officials in a Rolling Stone article. He had been a rising star in the Army, a decorated expert on counter-insurgency tasked with turning around the stalemated Afghanistan war.
Although McChrystal's comments were made on ABC two days prior, Trump did not comment publicly until he responded today to a tweet from conservative commentator Laura Ingraham.
Ingraham had tweeted an article titled "Media Didn't Like McChrystal Until He Started Bashing Trump." Catching up to it, Trump evidently agreed.
The President's very first words of the new year were an endorsement of a pro-Trump book by former White House aide Sebastian Gorka. The former Breitbart writer, a frequent television defender of the President, either quit or was fired in 2017 partly in protest that Trump's first major speech about the US military strategy in Afghanistan made no mention of what Gorka called "Radical Islam".
"Dr Sebastian Gorka, a very good and talented guy, has a great new book just out, "Why We Fight." Lots of insight - Enjoy!" Trump wrote.
Trump has been holed up in the White House instead of on holiday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, as planned, because of the government shutdown now in its second week and his standoff with Democrats over funding for a border wall.
"One thing has now been proven. The Democrats do not care about Open Borders and all of the crime and drugs that Open Borders bring!" Trump tweeted.
The shutdown is expected to continue at least until the House returns to work on Friday, under new Democratic management.
Democrats yesterday announced plans to reopen the nearly all government offices, using a funding formula previously approved by the Senate. But that plan does not include the US$5 billion in wall funding Trump is demanding, and Republican Senate leaders have said they would not support a bill not supported by the President.
"The Democrats, much as I suspected, have allocated no money for a new Wall," Trump wrote. "So imaginative! The problem is, without a Wall there can be no real Border Security - and our Country must finally have a Strong and Secure Southern Border!"
Trump also tweeted congratulations to newly inaugurated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist conservative who like Trump was elected to shake up the status quo.
