In his resignation letter to the president, outgoing Secretary of Defense James Mattis destroyed Donald Trump‘s dangerous worldview and highlighted the American values that the president has shredded over the past two years.
The key points of Mattis’s letter were clear rebukes of Trump. He stressed the importance of maintaining “international order,” working with U.S. allies, and rejecting the “authoritarian model” of American adversaries like China and Russia.
“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019,” Mattis wrote.
The full letter via ABC’s Elizabeth McLaughlin:
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Defense Secretary James Mattis has resigned. Here’s the letter: pic.twitter.com/e2PulyXpXZ
— Elizabeth McLaughlin (@Elizabeth_McLau) December 20, 2018
The White House is in complete chaos and there are no adults left to stop it
James Mattis’s decision to leave the administration comes a day after Trump suddenly decided to pull U.S. troops out of Syria without consulting with the Pentagon and military leaders.
It was another example of the president recklessly using U.S. troops as his political pawn without caring about or understanding that his actions have real-world consequences.
The type of erratic decision-making the country saw with Syria this week will only become more frequent as the number of adults surrounding Trump stands at roughly zero.
As Vox noted on Thursday, “The worry now is that, with Mattis gone, Trump is left with few if any moderating influences on his national security team.”
With James Mattis out as Secretary of Defense and Donald Trump‘s presidency spiraling further out of control each day, the country stands at a very dangerous place as 2018 comes to a close.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
