WASHINGTON | On his first day officially in charge of the Pentagon, Pat Shanahan got a glimpse of President Donald Trump’s scattershot way of looking at the world.
As Shanahan sat to the left of Trump at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, the president criticized U.S. allies as freeloaders, expressed disgust with U.S. warfighting strategy in Afghanistan, mused about his own potential to be an iconic general, dismissed Syria as “sand and death,” spoke encouragingly of a second North Korea summit, and falsely claimed he had fired former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
It was a very public reinforcement of the challenges that Shanahan, as acting defense secretary, faces as he finds his way through the complex terrain that led to the early end of his predecessor’s tenure.
At one point, Trump turned to Shanahan with an unusual demand.
The commander in chief said audits of Pentagon war spending must be “private” — seemingly a reference to reports produced by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Trump asserted that the reports provide too much information and should not be publicly released, although the law that created that watchdog’s office says its reports must be made public.
Trump wished Mattis well in the retired Marine general’s return to private life after two tumultuous years in charge of the Pentagon. But Trump also took a jab at the man he had approvingly called “Mad Dog Mattis” when he hired him shortly after winning election in 2016.
“What’s he done for me?” Trump asked. “How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good.”
He added, “President Obama fired him, and essentially so did I.”
Trump did not go into detail about his complaint about Mattis’ approach to the war. But Trump hinted that he had irreconcilable differences with Mattis on what Trump considers an unfair defense relationship with allies such as NATO. Trump suggested that Shanahan, who took over as acting defense secretary when Mattis ended his tenure Monday, agrees with him on this.
“We have some great allies, but a lot of our allies were taking advantage of our taxpayers and our country,” Trump said. “We can’t let that happen, and Pat Shanahan agrees with that and he’s agreed with that for a long time. And that was very important to me.
“I couldn’t get other people to understand it,” Trump said, apparently referring to Mattis, who argued for higher defense spending by NATO allies but did so in a nonconfrontational way.
In a resignation letter that amounted to a rebuke of Trump’s view on how to treat alliances and adversaries, Mattis wrote, “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues.”
