In Oval Office Interview, Trump Blasts Mattis, ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ – By Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway (The Federalist) / June 8 2020
President Donald Trump blasted former Defense Secretary James Mattis as “terrible,” criticized the power of the “military-industrial complex,” and defended his decision to draw down America’s military presence in Syria following the United States’ successful destruction of the Islamic State there.
Trump’s comments about Mattis came before Mattis published a statement attacking Trump and falsely claiming the military had never been used to support law enforcement in responding to violent riots. Trump said opposition from establishment figures like Mattis wasn’t driven by personality or tactical disagreements but by entirely different worldviews.
The president was critical of Mattis’ failure to achieve victory in Afghanistan and remove troops there after fighting since 2001. “Look, we’ve been there for 19 years – Mattis was terrible, you know, not very good,” Trump told The Federalist during an interview in the Oval Office in late May.
Trump also criticized Mattis’ demand of a permanent American military presence on the border of Syria and Turkey, and noted that dire predictions of a slaughter of Kurds following the withdrawal of U.S. troops never materialized. After he announced his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from the region after the destruction of the Islamic state, known as ISIS or ISIL, media viciously attacked Trump, claiming that his plan would result in the immediate genocide of the Kurdish people once American military forces were removed.
“Remember the way the press killed me? The press killed me,” over the decision to withdraw troops from the Turkey-Syria border, Trump said. “Guess what, nothing happened. They don’t talk about it. They don’t give me any credit for it.”
Continue to article: https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/08/in-oval-office-interview-trump-blasts-mattis-military-industrial-complex/
