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Trump announced the news in a tweet Sunday morning:
"I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019. Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!"In his resignation letter Thursday, Mattis, 68, had said he would remain in his role for more than three months, and on that day Trump said Mattis -- the first Cabinet official in 40 years to resign over a policy difference with the president -- was leaving in February.
POTUS evidently changed his mind.
"The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February," Mattis wrote Thursday.
It was not immediately clear why Mattis' departure date was apparently moved up, but sources told Fox News that Mattis quit "in protest" over the Trump's national security policies and that more resignations could be coming, which turned out to be true after Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State also resigned the following day. His resignation is effective December 31st.
"The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February," Mattis wrote Thursday.
It was not immediately clear why Mattis' departure date was apparently moved up, but sources told Fox News that Mattis quit "in protest" over the Trump's national security policies and that more resignations could be coming, which turned out to be true after Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State also resigned the following day. His resignation is effective December 31st.
The president downplayed the news via Twitter Saturday evening, saying he had neither met McGurk nor appointed him. He tweeted:
"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!"He followed up with:
"If anybody but your favorite 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!"The White House's plan to withdraw about half its troops in Afghanistan by the summer -- some 7,000 soldiers -- has drawn similar criticism.
Having troops anywhere to fight Islamists is not very effective. If we actually did defeat ISIS completely, another jihadi group would take its place. It isn't about who we are fighting, in terms of the group's name or country of affiliation, it's what we are fighting--sharia.
It's best to allow each faction of Islam, regarding how they view sharia, to kill each other and spare our own forces. Islam is its own worst enemy and Trump is probably right in the pullout of our troops.
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