Former Defense Secretary James Mattis Condemns Trump: “We Are Witnessing The Consequences of Three Years Without Mature Leadership”

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis has broken his silence on what he thinks about the Celebrity in Chief. “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,” he said in a 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. 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.”

Mattis, a retired Marine general, has kept pretty quiet since handing in his resignation. The reason for changing his tune, you ask? According to CNN, in light of recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd, Mattis was able to keep quiet no longer. He also took indirect shots at current Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, for his use of the word “battlespace” when talking about the current climate in American cities.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,'” Mattis explained. Then later added, “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

On Wednesday evening, Trump revisited the idea of whether or not the military would be used in response to the protests saying, “I don’t think we’ll have to,” but made sure to note, that he has “very strong powers to do it,” if need be.