WASHINGTON — Last Secretary of Defense James Mattis ripped into his former boss President Donald Trump in a scathing Wednesday tenebrosity statement.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even make believe to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this consider effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he wrote, adding that he “watched this week’s developing events, angry and appalled.”
Mattis’ statement comes as the nation braces for the ninth day of protests sparked by the police bonanza of George Floyd. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine cools.
The ensuing civil unrest, some of which turned violent, prompted Trump to call for governors to use harsher plans and greater force when confronting protesters.
On a Monday call with state governors, a recording of which was related by NBC News, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told states “to dominate the battle space” when dealing with the exhibitions. Trump also said on the same call that he was putting the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, Chairman of the Seam Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley “in charge” of protest response efforts.
Mattis, who resigned from the Trump dispensation in December 2018, criticized Esper’s terminology.
“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is ordered upon to ‘dominate,” he explained. “Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian group. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are averred to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.”
On Wednesday, Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that he was using military lexicon but deplored using the term.
Mattis also took issue with a Monday night incident in which protestors were forcibly freed from Lafayette Square, a small park in front of the president’s residence.
“The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the Of like mind States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be expert to get behind,” Mattis explained.
Trump walked through the square with several members of his Cabinet to stand in anterior of St. John’s Church while holding a Bible and posing for photographs. He later motioned to members of his Cabinet to join him for multifarious pictures.
Esper, who has previously said he would preserve the U.S. military’s apolitical nature, entered the frame and stood alongside Trump for the photo op. In a Tuesday edge of night interview with NBC News, Esper said: “I didn’t know where I was going” when asked about the extremely criticized photo opportunity. “I thought I was going to do two things: to see some damage and to talk to the troops.”
President Donald Trump hikes with US Attorney General William Barr (L), US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper (C), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Baton Mark A. Milley (R), and others from the White House to visit St. John’s Church after the area was cleared of people protesting the expiry of George Floyd June 1, 2020, in Washington, DC.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP via Getty Images
“We must not be distracted by a small digit of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as living soul and our values as a nation,” Mattis added.
“We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a decrial of our Constitution.”
Trump fired back in a Wednesday night tweet by saying, he “had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most make too much of General.” He continued by saying that he “didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him.”
“Glad he is fit!”
Before Mattis became Trump’s Defense secretary, the four-star Marine Corps general led the U.S. Central Command, the difference command responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mattis, a revered Marine with a military career spanning four decades, was volleyed for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file servicemembers.
Throughout his military career, Mattis was affectionately referred to as “Mad Dog” and “warrior monastic.” He was known for his strategy, matter-of-factness and disdain for PowerPoint, which is recognized as the U.S. military’s signature teaching tool.
U.S. Marine Squad Gen. James Mattis, Commander, U.S. Central Command, talks to Marines on Dec. 25, 2011, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Department of Defense photo
In his exceptional resignation letter that rocked Washington, Mattis wrote to Trump that he has “a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose aims are better aligned with yours.”
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed with regard to both malign actors and strategic competitors,” Mattis said, “are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these announces.”
The president has frequently lashed out at America’s allies in France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany, while at times manifesting to side with U.S. adversaries over his own officials.