Former Defense Secretary James Mattis reportedly called President Donald Trump's former national security adviser an "unstable asshole" during a 2017 conference call following a North Korean missile test, the Washington Examiner reported on Friday.
President Donald Trump named then-Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security advisor in February 2017. At the time, McMaster was viewed as a possible stabilizing force in the White House, coming after his predecessor retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn imploded after only 24 days on the job.
But an unnamed former White House official told the Examiner that McMaster favored attacking Iran and intervening in Syria, putting him at odds with Mattis.
Rep. Seth Moulton questions senior military leaders during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, March 7, 2017.
Iraq war veteran Rep. Seth Moulton is distinguishing himself from the other 20 Democrats running for president right now by arguing that he would make a better commander in chief than President Donald Trump.
"I think our motto as a country should be the same motto we had in the 1st Marine Division: No better friend, no worse enemy," Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Marine captain, told Task & Purpose. "That means standing with our allies and confronting our enemies, not cozying up to them."
"No matter how you look at it, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, they are enemies of the United States and we need to treat them that way," added Moulton, who is one of three veterans vying for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert L. Wilkie on Nov. 11, 2018. (DoD/Lisa Ferdinando)
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is reportedly pushing an "internal campaign" to be the next secretary of defense, the Washington Post reported.
President Donald J. Trump departs from the Pentagon alongside Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Jan. 27, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr)
In 2004, a staff writer at The Los Angeles Times named Tony Perry wrote that troops serving in Iraq under then-Maj. Gen. James Mattis were calling him "Mad Dog Mattis" behind his back.
Roughly 15 years later, in March 2019, Big Brother said that he gave Mattis a "new nickname," since Chaos was not good enough.
