Former Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis Tuesday denied that he had a tense relationship with President Donald Trump, disagreeing with news reports that had described an increasingly contentious situation between them.
"It wasn't a tense relationship. The president is a forthright man and so am I," Mattis told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"I would meet with him weekly. There was nothing going on that I wasn't open with him about. That's the way I deal with my boss anywhere I have ever been. He was elected by the American people."
On Sunday, however, Mattis told "CBS Sunday Morning" that Trump's announcement that he was pulling U.S. troops from Syria "absolutely" triggered him to resign in December 2018 and that Trump was so angry that he fired the retired U.S. Marine Corps general rather than keep him to serve a transition period.
On Tuesday, Mattis also said he would not second-guess decisions being made by Trump and new Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Mattis was on the program to discuss his new book, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," which he said does not discuss Trump at all.
"Bing West and I, my co-author, we began the book in 2013 when some people reminded me I had been very fortunate and they were right," said Mattis. "So what you want to do when you get my color hair you pass on the lessons you learned."
Mattis described his book as being "about leadership."
"It's about allies," he said. "It's about how do you set the vision as a leader, so all your young people, right down to the youngest 18-year-olds, feel a sense of ownership because once they do, you can delegate the authority for decision making to them."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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