{"id":46723,"date":"2019-02-01T16:16:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T16:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/01\/trump-i-forced-mattis-to-quit-because-i-wasnt-happy-with-the-job-he-was-doing\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:18:33","slug":"trump-i-forced-mattis-to-quit-because-i-wasnt-happy-with-the-job-he-was-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/02\/01\/trump-i-forced-mattis-to-quit-because-i-wasnt-happy-with-the-job-he-was-doing\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump: I forced Mattis to quit because \u2018I wasn\u2019t happy with the job he was doing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 In a newly published interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/01\/us\/politics\/trump-interview-transcripts.html\" target=_blank>the New York Times<\/a>, President Donald Trump claimed he forced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/12\/20\/mattis-out-defense-secretary-says-his-views-no-longer-aligned-with-trump\/\" target=_blank>former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis<\/a> to resign because \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy with the job that he was doing at all\u201d and needed to make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI told Mattis to give me a letter (of resignation),\u201d Trump told the newspaper. \u201cHe didn\u2019t just give me that letter \u2026 I said it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The comments are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/01\/02\/trump-insists-he-fired-mattis-says-former-defense-secretary-was-not-too-good-at-the-job\/\" target=_blank>the latest revision by the commander in chief<\/a> concerning Mattis departure from the top Pentagon post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Mattis announced his departure in December, the White House initially called it a \u201cretirement\u201d and praised the outgoing Cabinet official for \u201ctremendous progress\u201d in strengthening the military. Within a few weeks, however, Trump said called Mattis\u2019 performance in the job \u201cnot too good\u201d and said his resignation was welcomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/2018\/12\/23\/trump-fires-mattis-early-shanahan-to-take-over-jan-1\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_18221585556666.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Trump fires Mattis early, Shanahan to take over Jan. 1<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan will take over the department on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, Trump is suggesting that he fired the popular former Marine Corps general because of poor performance leading the military. In his resignation letter, Mattis wrote that he was stepping down \u201cbecause you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the letter he wrote, \u2018You have to have your own choice,\u2019\u201d Trump said in the interview. \u201cThe reason he said that was because I said, \u2018You\u2019re just not my choice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump did not elaborate on what changed between his effusive praise of Mattis early in his presidency and the months leading up to his departure. But he did note that \u201cI got him more money than the military has ever seen before\u201d and said he was still unhappy with the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his resignation letter, Mattis took aim at Trump\u2019s past criticism of foreign allies and his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in the months ahead. Mattis had planned a departure date of late February, but Trump announced just three days later that Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan would assume the acting defense secretary role on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked whether Shanahan could stay in that role permanently, Trump said the acting secretary is \u201c\u201ddoing a terrific job\u201d but also that \u201ca tremendous number of people would like that position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2018\/12\/24\/fix-it-man-shanahan-working-to-streamline-defense-spending\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18357610410303.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">\u2018Fix-it\u2019 man Shanahan working to streamline defense spending<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Shanahan&#039;s background is business, not military.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also insisted that despite the personnel turnover, \u201cthere\u2019s really no chaos in the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said one of his top goals for the next two years will be continuing to focus on national security, saying that the administration is still \u201cin the process of rebuilding the military, which was truly depleted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Military Times poll conducted in late September found that nearly 84 percent of troops had a favorable view of Mattis\u2019 work leading the armed forces as defense secretary. Among officers, the figure was almost 90 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president said he told Mattis to leave the Defense Secretary job because he wasn&#8217;t successful enough in the post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":80378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3424],"class_list":["post-46723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YPUMOSUAURDHZOKNWNAS4VSATM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/02\/01\/trump-i-forced-mattis-to-quit-because-i-wasnt-happy-with-the-job-he-was-doing\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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