US President Donald Trump hit back at former US Secretary of Defence James Mattis, characterizing the latter as "the world's most overrated General" who "rarely brought home the bacon" despite a "new life" given to him by the president.
In a series of tweets, Trump wrote that "the honor of firing Jim Mattis" was probably the only thing that he had in common with former US President Barack Obama. Trump mentioned a Mattis nickname, 'Chaos', which he claimed he "didn't like and changed to 'Mad Dog'".
In an apparent attempt to criticize Mattis' description of Trump's tenure as "immature leadership", the president complained that he "did not like much" about the former defence secretary leadership, adding that he was "glad" that Mattis "is gone".
...His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom “brought home the bacon”. I didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2020
Trump's remarks follow a statement by Mattis lambasting the former documented by The Atlantic, in which the former defence secretary accused Trump of threatening the US Constitution, claiming that "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try".
"Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society", Mattis wrote.
Amid Trump's threats to use military force to tackle ongoing protests over George Floyd's death, Mattis called on active Defence Secretary Mark Esper and other senior officials to "reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate'".
Commenting on Trump's threat to use the military, Mattis insisted that soldiers should be involved only on "very rare occasions" and only if state governors request their presence, in contradiction to Trump's warnings that he would deploy military assets himself if governors fail to follow his "recommendations" to "dominate the streets" through the use of the National Guard.
As former Trump appointees, including Mattis, call out the US president, the United States has been rocked with a wave of anti-police-brutality protests in every state and in most US cities over the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, protests that have in several cases seen an aggressive and militarized police response resulting in violence, looting, vandalism as well as injury and death.
