Trump formally introduces James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis at North Carolina rally

“We don’t want to have a depleted military, because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that just we shouldn’t be fighting in”, Trump told supporters at rally at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., on the second stop of his “thank you” tour of battleground states.

But confirming Mattis would force Congress to waive a 1947 law that prohibits anyone who was on active duty in the previous seven years from getting the job.

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Trump spent most of his speech discussing his plans to strengthen the USA military and help veterans.

The issue of whether to allow a non-civilian to take charge of the US military promises to be one of the first big votes facing the new Congress. The measure now under consideration would allow Republicans to avoid a showdown with Democrats when Mattis’ nomination comes up for a vote next year, according to several senior aides in both the House and the Senate.

Mattis joined Trump on stage at the event.

No timetable for decisions has been rendered, but Trump will “take the best and the brightest” of “more potential people who share in his vision”.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mattis will have to face a myriad of management-related problems mostly unfamiliar to him, as anybody would who takes over an organization the size of the USA military. Republicans could use the threat of a government shutdown to push Democrats on the issue.

Senators are debating how to proceed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein invoked Republicans’ treatment of Garland, telling Politico, “Past is present, and what goes around comes around”.

Schumer weighed in Monday on one example where Democrats’ hands are apparently tied on a nominee they disapprove of: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who was picked by Trump to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Tuesday’s provision would speed up action on the waiver though Democrats could still filibuster it. “And so I think he’s got, you know, a lot of qualities that are important to a secretary of defense job”. That’s in an effort to ensure that civilian control of the armed forces, a bedrock of the American democratic tradition, remains inviolate.

“I mean if they insist on [the waiver]…”

Mr Trump’s selections also highlight a frequent divide between the two major political parties in their strategies in appointing a Cabinet: In early 2009, Republicans criticised incoming President Barack Obama for not making enough selections with private-sector experience.

Smith said he wanted the House Armed Services Committee to have hearings and to require Mattis to testify.

“I think we’re going to have to hold at risk the nuclear program in the future; in other words, make plans now of what we’d do if, in fact, they restarted”, he said.

Even so, Trump said he wants to boost spending on the military.

“We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with”, the president-elect said on Tuesday night in Fayetteville, near Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina. Mattis allowed some unethical orders and other scenarios that would lead him to do so, but he said, “you have to be very careful about doing that”. Other items include about $4 billion to help Louisiana and other states rebuild from floods and other natural disasters, and money to partially meet the Obama administration’s $11.6 billion request last month for war-related money.