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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - December 2, 2016
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This is the December 2, 2016, edition of a daily email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition team, potential cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
Nominations and Appointments
As of December 2, 2016, Trump had announced seven out of 15 cabinet nominations.
Meet the (potential) new secretary of defense
“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at his first major post-election rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday evening. News began circulating yesterday afternoon that retired Marine Corps general James Mattis was Trump’s pick for the DOD, but it remained unconfirmed until Trump’s announcement.
Mattis’ military career spans more than four decades. He retired in 2013 and is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think-tank in California. He most recently served as the Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2010 to 2013 and has served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His nomination conflicts with federal law, which requires secretaries of defense to have been out of uniform for seven years before holding the office. Congress will likely have to grant Mattis a waiver in order for him to be confirmed. Something along these lines has happened before. General George Marshall, in 1950, was allowed to serve as the defense secretary. Mattis, if granted a waiver and confirmed, would be the first former ranking general to head the Pentagon since Marshall.
Mattis’ views on the military, defense policy, and foreign relations
There is a mystique around Mattis in military and political circles as well as in the media, which has taken to describing him through some of his more colorful quotes and personal habits. Mattis, for example, is reported to have once told a group of soldiers, “be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet,” and he is rumored to keep with him a copy of the Meditations of the Roman emperor/philosopher Marcus Aurelius. But what are Mattis’ actual views on the world and how do they differ from Trump’s and current defense policy? Below, we break down some of Mattis’ views on the military, defense policy, foreign relations, and America’s role in the world.
- American involvement in world affairs: Mattis supports what he has called “continued American engagement in the world.” In a speech in April 2014, he said, “In a world awash in change, any perceptions of U.S. retrenchment bring an urgent peril because American retreat is not a chance that is welcome by thoughtful elections … In a globally connected world, we withdraw at risk of rediscovering history’s lessons, learned at a bloody cost, lessons that should not be forgotten.”
- Fighting ISIS: Mattis has voiced his belief in a need for a more coherent policy in the fight against ISIS. Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee in September 2014, he said, “The strategy which then follows must define with carefully chosen words where we intend to go in this campaign: degrading, or defeating, or destroying the Islamic State, for example, portend different end states demanding different levels of effort, and thus different strategies.” Mattis, while not calling directly for sending American ground forces to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq, criticized the Obama administration’s decision to announce publicly its commitment to not sending “boots on the ground.” Trump has voiced similar criticisms of the Obama administration. In September 2014, Mattis said, “Whichever strategy is chosen, we should be reticent in telling our adversaries in advance any timeline that governs us or which of our capabilities we will not employ. Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies in advance that they will not see American 'boots on the ground': if a brigade of our paratroopers or a battalion landing team of our Marines could strengthen our allies at a key juncture and create havoc/humiliation for our adversaries, then we should do what is necessary with our forces that exist for that very purpose. The U.S. military is not war weary, our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.”
- Iran: In a speech in April 2016, Mattis called Iran “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East,” adding, “For all the talk of ISIS and Al Qaida everywhere right now… they’re a very serious threat. But nothing is as serious in the long term enduring ramifications, in terms of stability and prosperity and some hope for a better future for the young people out there, than Iran.” He also said, “We all live on hope … but I think that hoping Iran is on the cusp of becoming a modern, responsible nation is a bridge too far.” Mattis left his position as Commander of U.S. Central Command in 2013 (or was asked to leave) reportedly because of disagreements with the Obama administration on its policies toward Iran.
- Iran Nuclear Deal: Mattis has been a critic of the Iran nuclear deal, though he has said that it has “some merit” as an arms control agreement. He has been hesitant to recommend that the next president throw the deal out. In his April 2016 speech, he said, “We are going to have to recognize that we have an imperfect arms control agreement. What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt. We're going to have to plan for the worst. There's no going back. I don't think that we can take advantage of some new president's — Republican or Democrat — and say we're not going to live up to our word on this agreement. I believe we would be alone if we did, and unilateral economic sanctions from us would not have near the impact of an allied approach.” In September 2016, Trump said, “My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.”
- Syria: Mattis has voiced support for aiding Syrian rebels against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose fall from power Mattis has said would be “the biggest strategic setback for Iran in 25 years” and “would cause a great deal of concern and discontent in Tehran.” Mattis, however, has also warned if the U.S. became more involved in Syria, it would be a “very very serious war.” In a 2013 speech, he said, “This war needs to be ended as rapidly as possible, that’s the bottom line. But if the Americans go in… it’s going to be a full-throated, very very serious war. And anyone who says it’s easy, that we can do a no-fly zone and it will be cheap, I discount that at the outset.” In October 2016, Trump, when asked about how he would approach the civil war in Syria, said, “I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS.” Several conservative foreign policy analysts, at the time, criticized Trump’s statement and interpreted what he said as supportive of Assad’s efforts in the Syrian civil war.
- Spending: Mattis is known as a fiscal conservative and once said, “a country that loses control of its budget, loses its ability to govern.” The extent to which his approach to finances applies to military and defense spending, however, is not entirely clear. Trump has voiced support for increasing spending on defense and the military.
- Russia: Russia is a key foreign policy area where Mattis appears to differ from Trump. Whereas throughout the 2016 campaign Trump often spoke positively about Russian president Vladimir Putin and expressed reluctance to back NATO member states in the event of Russian aggression in eastern Europe, Mattis has expressed a more hawkish view on Russia. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation in May 2015, he described Russia as a state seeking “security through instability” and is opposed to having democratic nations along its borders. He called Russian military involvement in Crimea and Ukraine “war,” adding “you can call it whatever you want, but it is war. They may do it in a way that makes it deniable … Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will try to follow the rules.” In that same speech, he said that Putin is “out to break NATO apart.”
- NATO: Mattis held a commander position in NATO from 2007 to 2009, and he spoke in 2009 about the need for NATO to strengthen its military capabilities and to modernize its processes and approaches to a “changed security landscape,” adding, “The security challenges we face today can no longer be addressed with yesterday’s answers.” Trump has previously called NATO “obsolete” and has said that the security alliance needs to refocus its attentions on combatting terrorism.
- Torture: Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump proposed reinstating the interrogation technique known as “waterboarding.” Mattis, however, is reportedly opposed to waterboarding. According to Trump, Mattis told him, “I’ve never found it to be useful. Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I’ll do better.” Trump said that he was impressed by what Mattis told him.
- Social issues in the military: Mattis has spoken critically of efforts by the Obama administration to integrate transgender soldiers in the military and to open up combat positions to women. In a book that Mattis co-edited on civilian-military relations, he said, “We fear that an uninformed public is permitting political leaders to impose an accretion of social conventions that are diminishing the combat power of our military.”
How lawmakers are reacting to Mattis’ appointment
Republican lawmakers have expressed enthusiasm for Mattis’ nomination, while Democrats have spoken positively about his record of service and qualifications for the job. Democrats have also, however, voiced concern over granting Mattis the waiver that he needs to get past the federal law barring him from holding the position.
- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee—which has jurisdiction over secretary of defense nominations—said, “General Mattis has a clear understanding of the many challenges facing the Department of Defense, the U.S. military, and our national security. America will be fortunate to have General Mattis in its service once again.”
- Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said last month, before the news of Mattis’ nomination, “It is clear that General Mattis is a respected Marine and strategic thinker who served with honor and distinction. What is less clear is how Congress would go about changing the law to allow him or any recently retired senior officer to serve as the head of the Pentagon. That would require a debate about our Constitutional principle of civilian control of the military and passing a new bill.”
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a series of tweets, “General Mattis would be an outstanding choice to serve as our next Secretary of Defense. During his decades of service in the Marines, Gen. Mattis was widely respected by the troops under his command and his peers in uniform. General Mattis will provide great leadership to the Department of Defense and President-elect Trump will find his advice to be invaluable. I’m confident the waiver allowing Gen. Mattis to serve as Sec of Defense will be approved by Congress. I look forward to his confirmation.”
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver. Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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