This recurring problem of seeking military solutions to political problems has become acute over the past month, as Trump stoked fears about a caravan of r oughly 3,500 migrants , now nearing central Mexico, who want refugee status in the United States. Trump fumed in an Oct. 29 tweet: “This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”
Mattis was already facing a Trump-quake before the order to deploy troops. The president took a rare public shot at his defense secretary in an Oct. 14 interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” saying that Mattis was “sort of a Democrat” and that “he may leave” his post.
Mattis scrambled to affirm his loyalty. “I’m on his team,” he told reporters traveling with him a day later. “We have never talked about me leaving.” Mattis said that Trump had called him after the “60 Minutes” interview with the reassuring message: “I’m with you 100 percent.”
Mattis isn’t the only Marine whose acquiescence worries some Pentagon insiders.
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