but the past few days have been a cornucopia of weird going out of his way lies about small, easily checkab ablable things.r president does that, especially after defense secretary james mattis has resigned in protest, and then it became clear that the president never read the defense secretary s resignation letter. because when he saw on tv what the letter said about him, he pushed mattis out the door two months early. and installing as the acting pentagon chief a former boeing executive, who had no government or military experience until he was mattis deputy. turkey, whose autogratic president convinced trump to withdraw from syria, announced that trump accepted to an invitation to the country next
military for the foreseeable future, if that s what the president is planning? well, if that s what he s planning, you know, that s what it s going to be. shanahan is a long-time boeing executive. he has a lot of experience in large organizations and corporate matters, large budgets, acquisition, innovation, all the issues that he s been dealing with as deputy defense secretary. as he takes on acting secretary, what officials are saying is, he will have to rely more on the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general joe dunford, paul selva. he will have to rely on military advice as he forms any recommendations for the president. mattis had been in the marine corps for decades and had been in the most senior command positions. so secretary mattis had a lot of military operational experience himself. he didn t need to rely on the uniforms quite as much. this will be a much more traditional construct, i think,
concern. secretary mattis, general mattis was a very highly respected individual, and very well known among the troops. he s not one of the secretaries where the troops don t know who their secretary of defense is. they knew who he was. shanahan is not a known quantity at all to the rank and file. a boeing executive. a boeing executive. i m sure he does a great job managing but the job of secretary of defense is a different one. that s the one that s outward facing to the world, and then also i think rallying the troops, frankly. and he hasn t done either of those things in his current g capacity. before mattis left, he sends this holiday letter to the troops. in his letter he wrote in part, storm clouds loom, yet because of you, your fellow citizens live safe at home. first, the president s decision to pull troops out of syria. it leaves a vacuum there. the president s decision to pull
escalated and now apparently also wants to draw down. one other note, katy, it looks like we ll have deputy secretary of defense, soon to be acting secretary of defense patrick shanahan, for some time. remember, this is a boeing executive, new to washington, not a lot of experience in world affai affairs. katy? hans, i want to stay with who donald trump is listening to right now. because when we were on the campaign trail we asked him who he gets advice from and he says he listens to the shows. he listens to generals talking on the shows. has that changed? or who is he listening to now if he s admitting that he s ignoring his generals today? yeah, it s a hard question. we know he listens to the president of turkey, who told him and the president apparently made assurances to reaccept erdogan, that erdogan made the assurances that they would finish off the fight on isis. it s clear the president s public statements on isis and their strength are at odds with what his officials are s
concern and anxiety about what will come next? how soon they will come home? what will happen to the conflict left behind. secretary mattis planned to say, he told the president, until february 28th. two months from now. he will be gone by january 1st. president trump had mike pompeo call mattis and tell him he will be gone by january 1st. that puts shanahan in place as the number two who has been most involved, and acquisition and reform, and no foreign policy experience, this long-time boeing executive will go to a nato summit and have to deal with the military allies and keep a sharp eye on the military foes and oversee the withdraws from the war zones the president