James Mattis, dumped by Donald Trump, gave this advice to Pentagon staff on his final day as US defence secretary: ‘hold fast’
- James Mattis, who resigned over policy disagreements with Donald Trump but was then ditched before his planned departure, wrote a farewell message to staff
On his final day as US defence secretary, James Mattis on Monday urged all Pentagon employees, military and civilian, to “hold fast” in defence of the nation.
Mattis, who submitted his resignation on December 20 and was, in effect, fired by President Donald Trump three days later, was working in the Pentagon on Monday and preparing to hand off his duties at midnight to Deputy Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
Trump picked Shanahan, a former Boeing executive with no previous government or military experience, to serve as acting defence secretary, pending a decision on who would be nominated to serve in a more permanent capacity.
Mattis has not said publicly what he intends to do next. He has mused about returning to his roots in Washington state. He was born in Pullman and raised in Richland.
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He graduated from Central Washington University in 1971 and then entered the Marine Corps, where he began as a second lieutenant and rose to the rank of four-star general.
In a written farewell message, Mattis quoted a one-sentence telegram that President Abraham Lincoln sent to the commander of Union forces, General Ulysses S. Grant, on February 1, 1865, in the final weeks of the Civil War.
