A "sometimes shocking" book on the "complicated relationship" between former Defense Secretary James Mattis and President Donald Trump, including details on how the retired four-star Marine general worked to block some of Trump proposals, is due out in October by an ex-Mattis adviser.
Retired Navy Cmdr. Guy "Bus" Snodgrass is writing "Holding the Line: Inside the Pentagon With General Mattis" for Sentinel, an imprint of the Penguin Group, NBC News reports.
Snodgrass, a former Navy F/A-18 pilot and TopGun instructor who retired from the military last year, served as Mattis' chief speechwriter and communications director for 17 months.
Mattis, 68, resigned as defense secretary in December — serving nearly two years — after President Trump announced an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
He co-wrote a book with former Marine Bing West, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," that was released this week.
The book is not a tell-all about his Trump tenure. "I'm old fashioned," Mattis wrote. "I don't write about sitting presidents."
However, "Holding the Line" is based on the "meticulous notes" Snodgrass took during his time in the Mattis inner circle, according to the release.
It also will provide a "fly-on-the-wall view of Mattis" during national security meetings and at other activities.
The book also will detail other developments during Mattis' tenure in the Trump administration, including "learning about major policy decision via Twitter, rather than from the White House" and how the former defense secretary "slow-rolled some of Trump's most controversial measures, with no intention of following through."
Snodgrass told NBC that he was finishing the book and planned to submit it to the Pentagon for pre-publication review, which is required to ensure that no classified material is inadvertently disclosed.
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