Trump says Mattis is leaving 2 months sooner than expected

President Trump speaks as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan look on during a cabinet meeting.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

Defense Secretary James Mattis will leave his role two months sooner than expected, President Trump announced Sunday morning in a tweet naming Mattis' temporary successor:

Trump's initial announcement that Defense Secretary James Mattis would step down from his post put his departure date "at the end of February," as did Mattis' resignation letter. CBS News reports this earlier departure date comes on Trump's orders.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.