Many outlets are reporting former Defense Secretary Mattis has criticized the President for failing “to try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try.” I get that Mattis didn’t like being fired, but this is a cheap shot even for a disgruntled former employee.
President Trump was doing a great job of uniting the American people prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Unemployment was at all-time lows, especially minority employment.
The economy was booming, troops were coming home from overseas, illegal immigration was down, and nobody much was shooting at us. Much of that is still true.
Trump is no more responsible for the George Floyd death in Minneapolis than Obama was responsible for the Freddy Gray death in Baltimore, or for the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO. Ditto for Lyndon Johnson and the Detroit riots.
And Trump’s been no more successful than was Obama or Johnson in “uniting the American people” and ending the riots. African-American dissatisfaction with white society has been brewing for over 200 years and isn’t going away any time soon.
Gen. Mattis needs to get over being fired. Cabinet Secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president, and this president is easily displeased as demonstrated on his ‘reality’ TV show and by the list of his former executive branch appointees.
Mattis and Rex Tillerson thought incorrectly it wouldn’t happen to them. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was another ex-Defense Secretary soon. The incumbent - Esper - just disagreed with his boss.
