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Mattis

Trump’s ill treatment of former advisers is coming back to haunt.

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Former U.S. Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, Sept. 9, 2019.
Photo: gary he/Reuters
Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s denunciation of President Trump on Wednesday isn’t surprising, but it still looks like an important political moment. Mr. Trump’s polarizing and hyper-personal governance is catching up with him, as we and so many others warned.
Mr. Mattis, the former four-star Marine General, is a man of accomplishment and dedication to country. He made the decision to join Mr. Trump’s Administration despite the misgivings he must have had about the President’s foreign-policy views. He served loyally until he resigned on Dec. 20, 2018 after Mr. Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from the Syrian border with Turkey after a telephone call with Turkey’s President.
But as he so often has, Mr. Trump couldn’t resist kicking Mr. Mattis as he was going out the door. His initial tweets were supportive, but within two days he was criticizing Mr. Mattis for not helping enough to dun allies for more cash for U.S. foreign deployments. “General Mattis did not see this as a problem. I DO, and it is being fixed!” he tweeted.
He told a cabinet meeting that “I wish him well. I hope he does well. But, as you know, President Obama fired him and essentially so did I.” Mr. Mattis said in his resignation letter he’d stay until Feb. 28, but Mr. Trump ordered him out on Jan. 1.
In his statement to the Atlantic, Mr. Mattis denounced in particular Mr. Trump’s threat this week to order the military to restore order amid riots in U.S. cities. He said this threatens the Constitution, which is overwrought given that George H.W. Bush and other Presidents have done this. Mr. Mattis also undersold the significant harm that riots have done in many cities (see nearby).
But the general’s real motivation here is to tell the public that Mr. Trump lacks the character to be President and should be defeated in November. “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,” Mr. Mattis said. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
This will resonate with many voters because it comes from someone who is no left-winger and has worked closely with the President. The question is whether this will begin a cascade of similar declarations from other former advisers. John Bolton, a former national security adviser, has written a memoir that will not be admiring.
John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s second chief of staff, defended Mr. Mattis from the President’s claim this week that he had fired the defense secretary. “The President has clearly forgotten how it actually happened,” said Mr. Kelly, another former general whom Mr. Trump disparaged after he left the White House. Other generals joined the criticism Thursday, and not all of them are Democratic partisans like John Allen, who invoked some apocalyptic nonsense about the end of democracy.
Every President has breakups with advisers, but Mr. Trump has gone through them like an assembly line. His demand for personal loyalty and his thin skin clash with people who care about larger causes and have strong views. Mr. Trump’s habit of blaming others for policy decisions or events that go wrong also builds resentment. This was bound to boomerang as he ran for re-election, and so it is.
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