Pointed as Mattis’s letter was, it did not catalogue the many ways he had grown frustrated with the president. He had resisted Trump’s efforts to withdraw from Afghanistan, abandon the Iran nuclear agreement, ban transgender troops from the military, cancel military exercises with South Korea and pull out troops or dependents, undercut or even leave NATO, and conduct a military parade down the streets of Washington. More broadly, Mattis thought Trump was wildly reckless, oddly blind to the threat posed by Russia, and irresponsibly cavalier about America’s international commitments.
