Things just got even uglier between James Mattis and Donald Trump

| 6:09 pm EST December 23, 2018
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When Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced he was quitting this week, he submitted a scathing but dignified resignation letter. He also agreed to stay on until February, thus giving Donald Trump plenty of time to find a replacement and make a smooth transition. It turns out Trump wants no such thing, and he just shoved Mattis out the back door.

Donald Trump is still afraid to publicly attack General Mattis. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as Trump never does attack the military Generals he clashes with. Trump did post a bizarre rant last night attacking President Obama in relation to Mattis. Today, Trump took things further by effectively canceling the final two months of Mattis’ tenure as Secretary of Defense.

Here’s what Trump announced today: “I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019. Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!”

It’s possible this will work in favor of the Resistance. Donald Trump is clearly no longer listening to James Mattis one way or the other, so it probably wouldn’t have helped the nation for him to stay on for an extra two months, which probably would have seen him isolated from the White House. Now, when House Democrats begin holding public hearings on Trump’s crimes the first week of January, Mattis will already be out of office, and will thus be in a more unrestrained position when he’s called as a witness.