Trump lays out non-interventionist U.S. military policy

America’s new secretary of Defense nominee has an apparently quite divergent – and more realistic – sense of the world than either President-elect Donald Trump or even, in some respects, the new nominee for national security adviser, retired Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn.

In an effort to get ahead of Democrat obstructionism, Republicans have inserted a waiver for Marine General James Mattis into the end of the year spending package. Unless Congress votes and the president signs an exception, “a person may not be appointed as secretary of defense within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force”, the law says. At one point, when I worked in a very small office that reported straight to the SECDEF on new ideas, concepts, tools and visions about war, I coordinated a meeting between Mattis and my boss.

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a stopgap spending bill that would also expedite the likely confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary next year.

All three had high-profile military careers leading top commands, and they are known for their willingness to offer blunt policy assessments publicly and privately.

No final decisions have made, but on Monday lawmakers floated adding the measure to the spending bill to prevent Democrats from filibustering the Mattis waiver, the aides said. “Thank you, North Carolina!” So instead of tucking a waiver for General Mattis in a “must-pass” bill voted on in the middle of the night, we must give this issue serious examination through public hearings. This perhaps explains why Republicans like Sen.

By Nov. 22, Trump told the New York Times that he was “seriously considering” Mattis for the Pentagon job. Although the president-elect has yet to make the nomination official, he praised Mattis, calling him “a true General’s General”.

So far, members of the Washington state delegation have had little to say about Mattis. “He is great”, Trump said, using one of Mattis’ nicknames.

Democrat Leon Panetta, a former United States defense secretary critical of Trump, says it is worth it. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a member of the Armed Services Committee.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said this week that rushing a debate on civilian control of the military would set a bad precedent.

After noting how his come-from-behind victory had surprised many, Mr. Trump said Hispanics and African-Americans, whom he “did so well” with, would quickly be beneficiaries of his proposed infrastructure investments, particularly those in the “inner cities”. In August, the two men spent more time together in Trump’s plane and at fundraising and campaign events in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Tulare County in the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Trump for years criticized Obama’s policies before winning the presidential election last month.

Mattis served in the Marine Corps for more than four decades, enlisting in 1969. His three-year stint as the commander of all US military forces in the Middle East, which abruptly ended after he was pushed out by the Obama administration, only solidified his reputation as a tough-talking, independent, no-nonsense, strategic thinker.