( CNN) Lots of Cabinet officials — and I mean Plenties — have either resigned or been fired by President Donald Trump in his first 20 months in office. But no one has discontinued in quite the same way as Defense Secretary James Mattis did Thursday night.
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“One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of confederations and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies.”
That objective Thursday — with the letter that seemed to be months of pent-up frustrations by Mattis loosed, in written form, on Trump.
With Tillerson gone and Mattis and Kelly on their way out, the prevailing sentiment among establishment Republicans in Washington was one of thinly veiled panic.
“We are headed towards a series of tomb policy mistakes which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances& empower our antagonists, “ tweeted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio( R) shortly after the news of Mattis' resignation broke.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse( R) called it a “sad day, ” adding: “Secretary Mattis was giving advice the President needs to hear. Mattis rightly believes that Russia and China are clear adversaries and that we are at war with jihadists across the globe who plot to kill Americans at home.”
The simple fact of Trump's presidency is now this: All rails have been removed from the proverbial road. The men( and women) expected to mediate and mitigate some of Trump's wilder ideas and statements are now, nearly to a person, go — driven off by a President whose vision of the country and the world is both highly erratic and deeply held. And nearly to a person, those advisers have been replaced by others who have risen up in Trump's reckoning by telling him what he wants to hear.
Mattis' departure is the death knell of the idea that Trump could –and possibly would — adhere to any sort of “normal” order during his term as President. This is a President who has driven away the very people who he( and the country) trusted with steer him as a political leader in these difficult. Now there is only Trump — and those willing to enable him.
