---
title: "Mattis On Leaving The Pentagon: ‘I’m Thinking About Retiring Right Here’"
description: "With his typical swagger, Defense Secretary James Mattis has swatted down speculation that his time at the Pentagon is nearing its end."
date: "2018-09-18"
modified: "2018-09-18"
authors:
  - name: "Jeff Schogol"
    job_title: "Senior Pentagon Reporter"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jeff-schogol/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/mattis-leaving-pentagon-rumors/"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Pentagon"
---

# Mattis On Leaving The Pentagon: ‘I’m Thinking About Retiring Right Here’

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/18990369-1.jpg>)

With his typical swagger, Defense Secretary James Mattis has swatted down speculation that his time at the Pentagon is nearing its end.

- Mattis faced [a barrage of questions from reporters](<https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1042145255490052096>) on Tuesday about a slew of recent media reports that he is on the way out. “Those have been pretty good ones, haven’t they?” he said with a broad smile.
- When a reporter pressed Mattis on whether he was thinking about leaving, he replied: “I’m thinking about doing my job each day.”

- Mattis cautioned reporters against believing a growing of chorus of stories in the media that he will either resign or be dismissed by President Trump soon.
- “I wouldn’t take it seriously at all,” he said. “It’s like most of those kind of things in this town: Somebody cooks up a headline; they then call to a normally chatty class of people; they find a couple of other things to put in; they add the rumor; somebody on the other coast starts writing the same thing – the next thing you know, you’ve got a story. It’ll die down just like – how many times have we been through this now, just since I’ve been here?
- “It will die down soon, and the people who started the rumor will be allowed to write the next rumor too. Just the way the town is. Keep a sense of humor about it.”
- In a final exchange, a reporter asked Mattis, “You never think about leaving?”

“Of course I don’t think about leaving,” he replied. “I love it here. I’m thinking about retiring right here. I’ll get a little place down on the Potomac.”

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image-placeholder-title-1390.png>)

## Author
Jeff Schogol is the senior Pentagon reporter for Task & Purpose. He reports on both the Defense Department as a whole as well as individual services, covering a variety of topics that include personnel, policy, military justice, deployments, and technology.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/jdschogol/>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-schogol-188a9317/>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/JeffSchogol>)