Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced via a tweet Thursday that Defense Secretary James Mattis will retire at the end of February. In his resignation letter Mattis said he was leaving his post so the president could have a Defense secretary whose views were “better aligned” with his own.
In his resignation letter, Mattis stressed his belief in the importance of America’s international alliances. During his tenure Mattis has repeatedly had to stress to Trump the value in America’s security alliances, particularly the NATO alliance.
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” Mattis wrote. “We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.”
Mattis wrote the president has the right to have a defense secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours.”
“I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” he wrote adding that he would stay on the job through Feb. 28, 2019 to give enough time to transition to a confirmed successor.
He specifically expressed concern about China and Russia, nations who he said have made clear they “want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model.”
Mattis added that he believes the U.S. “…must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours.
Mattis’ announcement comes a little over two years after Trump nominated him to be secretary. It also comes a day after Trump’s surprise announcement that he was pulling out U.S. troops from Syria and the same day that news broke that the administration was weighing a significant reduction in the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after a 41-year career in which he led troops in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, in Afghanistan during the initial U.S. wave in 2001 and in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. He capped his career as the head of U.S. Central Command, where he was in charge of all American forces serving in the Middle East and oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a tweet, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, tweeted “It is with great sadness that I was informed of the resignation of General Mattis. He is one of the great military leaders in American history. He should be proud of the service he has rendered to President @realDonaldTrump and our nation.”
Reports have circulated for months that Mattis could be the next senior Trump administration official to leave office, especially as he has been seen as curbing the president’s more impulsive military and personnel choices.
Asked at the Reagan National Defense Forum earlier in December if he had any plans to leave office, the secretary instead spoke about his love for U.S. troops and revealed once again a deep-seated duty to serve the country.
“When the President of the United States asks you to do something in America, you just do it. To quote Nike, ‘Just Do It,'” Mattis told an audience at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.