Trump Chooses Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force
“Mattis was furious, (Trump’s appointments to DOD) made him suspicious of the transition team, and things devolved from there.” Source to Washington Post
Following a private meeting Nov. 19, President-elect Donald Trump called retired 4-star General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis ‘the real deal’ and chose the general as the new Secretary of Defense. Now, Mattis has been rejecting large numbers of Trump buddies offered by Trump for several top posts.
The brief honeymoon between retired 4-star General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis ‘ ‘the real deal’ and Trump, the ‘master of the deal’ went south four weeks ago when Mattis, now the nominee for Secretary of Defense, read in the news media that Trump had selected Vincent Viola, a billionaire Army veteran, to be secretary of the Army.
Mattis has rejected most of the nominations by Trump’s team.
This is especially true of nominations by Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, President-elect Trump’s national security adviser-designate. Flynn was sacked by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. following a dispute with then-Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers. Flynn is also a major part of the disturbing Putin/Trump bromance.
Transition sources also said that David McCormick, a hedge fund manager and former Army officer, is still Trump’s likely pick to be deputy defense secretary, the No. 2 job under Mattis.
UPDATE: The Trump transition team emailed me this statement: “We are ahead of schedule with assembling the most qualified cabinet and administration in history. Any implication contrary to that is completely false and from sources who do not have any knowledge of our transition efforts.”