Donald Trump suddenly has a “General” problem

| 2:03 pm EDT October 14, 2018
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This weekend we saw Donald Trump use an Ohio campaign rally speech as an excuse to launch into a bizarre and fact-challenged rant about U.S. General Ulysses Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Trump’s official excuse was that Grant was from Ohio, which didn’t explain why Trump seemed to be favoring Lee in his ramblings. But now we may have a better explanation for why Trump had Generals on his mind.

Donald Trump has given a new interview to 60 Minutes, which will air in full tonight, but pieces of it are already surfacing online. In one segment, Trump is asked about rumors that his Secretary of Defense, the widely respected General James Mattis, might be on his way out. Trump’s answer was – how can we say this – weird even by his standards:

“I have a very good relationship with him. I had lunch with him two days ago. I have a very good relationship with him. It could be that he is. I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth … But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington.”

Based on Donald Trump’s refusal to deny the rumors, we can conclude that either General Mattis is leaving, or Trump doesn’t know if Mattis is leaving. Based on Trump’s weird half hearted attempt at laying the groundwork for explaining away a potential departure (suggesting he’s a Democrat), it sounds like Trump is uneasy about the prospect of losing Mattis. Trump has been oddly deferential to his military Generals, even as he’s tended to insult and scapegoat everyone else on his staff. So just maybe, Trump is suddenly obsessed with Generals in general, because he’s generally concerned about losing his best General.