Trump says of Mattis: 'He's sort of a Democrat' and might leave administration

In a "60 Minutes" interview host Lesley Stahl asked President Trump whether Secretary of Defense James Mattis might leave his administration just a few weeks since journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his book "Fear" that Mattis compared the POTUS to a "fifth-or-sixth-grader."

Trump responded, "Well, I don't know. He hasn't told me that."

"I have a very good relationship with him," Trump continued. "I had lunch with him two days ago. ...It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington."

Leave, leave, leave--everybody. They leave.

Regarding reports that the White House is in chaos, Trump called the claim "so false" and "fake news," adding, "I have people now on standby that will be phenomenal. They'll come into the administration.

"Yeah, other people will go, sure. We have a great Cabinet. There are some people I'm not happy with. I have some people that I'm not thrilled with. And I have other people that I'm beyond thrilled with."

He has people he's not happy with, nor thrilled with, but he has others that he's beyond thrilled with, which brings to mind many questions.

President Trump's repetitive comments came soon after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced her resignation, to take effect at year's end. The left-leaning media  claimed the departure indicated an extraordinarily high number of high-level departures from the Trump administration, but after looking at the numbers, the nonprofit Brookings Institution found that previous administrations lost a similar number of top officials.

After chinless Syrian dictator Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrians in April of last year, Woodward's book claimed that Trump demanded Mattis launch an assassination attempt.

"Let's f**king kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f**king lot of them," Trump allegedly said. According to Woodward, Mattis told an aide, "We're not going  to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."

Mattis, according to the book, was also caught by surprise while on vacation when Trump proposed a ban on transgender troops. Mattis, who opposed the policy, has since unveiled a policy much more aligned with Trump's requests, but several lawsuits have temporarily put a hold on enforcing it.

Mattis said in a statement that "the contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence."

Woodward is known to document "facts" that are uncorroborated. Kind of sounds like the Kavanaugh debacle. Trump openly wondered if Woodward is a "Dem operative." He also posted on Twitter in September calling his book a "con on the public."

Mattis worked as head of the U.S. Central Command under former President Barack Hussein Obama, replacing David Petraeus. Mattis openly disagreed with Trump on several issues, favoring the preservation of certain aspects of the Obama Iran nuclear deal. Trump had called that deal a "horrible, one-sided" giveaway, basically the worst deal any human being has ever made in the history of the world, and maybe even the universe. Mattis believed the deal included "robust" measures and overall, it helped our interests [like not dying in a blinding nuclear blast].

Mattis views NATO as an alliance that's key to maintaining international order, while Trump criticized member nations for not paying their fair share of their GDP for national defense.

Secretary Mattis was able to change Trump's mind in certain areas. He convinced POTUS to abandon his stated desire to torture terror detainees and also got him to send more troops to Afghanistan.

There are no overt indications that Mattis has been withdrawing from his normal duties, and he will be heading to Vietnam on Tuesday, where he will visit Ho Chi Minh City [aka: Saigon] as the administration is attempting to counter China's military assertiveness.

Some see the arrival of Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel to the White House in May, as a sign Trump is planning to fire Mattis after the midterms next month. Ricardel and Mattis have often sparred in the past.

Also, Trump's hiring of U.N. ambassador John Bolton as national security adviser is a sign Trump's shift to a more hardline stance than Mattis supports, shows that the president is looking to change tactics and may want Mattis to go.

"I heard you're actually the Devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you," Mattis told Bolton in an open mic exchange when they met at the Pentagon earlier in the year.

In September, Mattis downplayed reports that he'd be leaving the Defense Department.

But we shall see.


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