Ex-defense chief Mattis rips into Trump for dividing US

Bloomberg

Ex-defense secretary Jim Mattis condemned his former boss, President Donald Trump, over his aggressive rhetoric and strategy to quell protests that erupted after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody.
“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,” Mattis, a retired Marine general, wrote in a scathing statement.
“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.
“This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
The sharply worded and unprecedented rebuke from Trump’s first defense chief will raise pressure on the president, who threatened to dispatch active duty troops to quash protests and drew widespread condemnation when the square in front of the White House was forcibly cleared before he walked to a historic church to hold a Bible for photographers.
The president responded saying that he “didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about” Mattis. “His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations,” Trump wrote in one of a pair of tweets.
Mattis stepped down 18 months ago after Trump abruptly announced on Twitter that he wanted to pull US troops from Syria, but he was a hugely influential member of the president’s first national security cabinet.
Trump was so eager to unveil his nomination of Mattis after the 2016 election that he announced his plans at a campaign-style rally where he introduced the former head of US Central Command by a moniker — “Mad Dog” — and called him “one of the most effective generals that we’ve had in many, many decades.”
Mattis’s statement, first published in The Atlantic, came on what had already been a rough day for the defense
establishment.
Trump’s current secretary, Mark Esper, angered White House officials by publicly distancing himself from Trump’s potential use of the 1807 Insurrection Act to deploy active duty forces to cities confronting protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
At a news conference in the afternoon, the president’s press secretary tiptoed around whether Esper’s job was safe, saying only that he remained in his post.

Trump confronted Esper over comments on protests
Bloomberg

President Donald Trump confronted his defense secretary, Mark Esper, after the Pentagon chief publicly opposed the idea of deploying the military to contain protests, according to people familiar with the matter. Separately, the president later asked top advisers if they thought Esper could still be
effective in his position, two people familiar with the discussions said.
At a news conference, the president’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, tiptoed around whether Esper’s job was safe, saying only that he remained in his post.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment. Esper met with Trump in the Oval Office after telling reporters at the Pentagon that active-duty military forces to perform law enforcement within the US is “a matter of last resort” and that the National Guard was better-suited to the task.