and sincere that the defense secretary is resigning in part over it. >> what i don't get about this, and i don't know general mattis, and i have a high respect for him, but look, trump's staked almost his whole presidency on taking on china. it's the right time to do that. i think he has the american people behind him. if he wins this trade fight, which i believe he will, because he's tough and he's not going to back down, you're going to see the biggest boom in the stock market and the economy ever. so this is a -- i don't understand why general mattis says somehow he's like a china simp sympathizer when we finally have a president who's taking on china. >> we have never seen anything like this resignation letter and it is going to reverberate and it is going to cover over the things that steve just said and the ways that he tried to defend the president. this is the beginning of people coming out with their critiques. you made the point earlier. people have left. people have left quietly. there's been gossip, maybe they've talked to reporters or book writers, but no one has put their objections in a form like