Trump reportedly called James Mattis the 'world's most overrated general'
President Trump was on a roll Wednesday, slinging insults at everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
During a meeting between Trump and lawmakers on Wednesday, an attendee shared something that Mattis once said about the Islamic State, a Democrat familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press. Mattis warned that if the U.S. stops applying pressure on the terrorist group, there will be a resurgence in the Middle East, but Trump scoffed, saying Mattis is not "tough enough" and "the world's most overrated general."
Trump also said that since U.S. troops left Syria last week, 100 ISIS prisoners have escaped, but he downplayed the turn of events, saying they were the "least dangerous" ones. When asked by AP if this was true, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he did not know.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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