Former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned last year after clashing with President Trump, says in a book excerpt that “I did as well as I could for as long as I could” and warns of the dangers of a leader who is not committed to working with allies.
Mattis, who announced his resignation in December after Trump shocked U.S. allies and overruled his advisers by announcing a troop withdrawal from Syria, writes in his book that he decided to depart “when my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faith with our allies, no longer resonated.” The book is due to be published next week by Random House.
In the excerpt, published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, Mattis writes about the need for leaders to appreciate the value of allies without explicitly mentioning Trump, who has made a slogan of “America First.”