Trump Is Not Listening to Mattis Who Has Been Shut Out, According to Officials
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense James Mattis are reportedly not seeing eye to eye, as the President has taken to putting more U.S. military policies in his own hands rather than consulting with his Cabinet.
Mattis is now out of the loop and has been caught increasingly uninformed and off-guard about some of Trump's latest pronouncements when it comes to U.S. military policies, according to NBC News.
For one, Mattis was among the last ones to learn that the U.S. was being withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, a development that he would only learn about from his colleague back in May. Just a few weeks later, Mattis was again the one being belatedly informed that Trump is making yet another major military policy announcement — this time, it was the halt of U.S. military exercises in South Korea.
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In the Singapore summit, even North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un was informed of the decision ahead of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, according to reports.
Before these past few months, however, it was a cordial and warm relationship between the two. "He's never been one of the go-tos in the gang that's very close to the president," a senior White House official said about Mattis.
"But the president has a lot of respect for him," the official added. Trump has since seemingly shifted his appraisal of Mattis, according to administration officials. Reportedly, the President has reason to believe that Mattis has been slow in pushing for policy directives, in part because he allegedly looks down on Trump.
"They don't really see eye to eye," a former senior White House official said about their new dynamic, as quoted by the Business Insider. It was a report that's been laughed down by the White House, though.
"For an unnamed expert to claim a department is not in the loop is ludicrous," National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said about the situation that Pentagon spokesperson Dana white called "pure silliness."
