Secretary of Defense James Mattis has slowly lost the President’s ear in recent months, a rift that dates back to President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, NBC News reported on Monday.
According to current and former White House and DOD officials, Mattis opposed the embassy move and has been left out of key Trump administration decisions in recent months, including the withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the decision to pause “war games” with South Korea and, just last week, Trump’s announcement ordering the Pentagon to move interplanetary.
Mattis and Trump reportedly “don’t really see eye-to-eye,” one former White House official told NBC, and Trump has started to rely more on his secretary of state and national security adviser — whose appointment Mattis opposed — for guidance.
Trump reportedly believes that Mattis looks down on him and has a habit of slow rolling his defense policy decisions.
Read NBC’s full report here.