Mattis Dismisses Reports He May Be Leaving Trump Administration

TEHRAN (defapress)- US Defense Secretary James Mattis rejected reports that he would be leaving the Pentagon soon, noting that he wouldn’t take them “seriously at all”.

News ID: 72519

Date: 19 September 2018 - 16:55

“Like most of those kinds of things in this town, somebody cooks up a headline, they then call to a normally chatty class of people, they find a couple other things to put in, they add their rumor, somebody on the other coast starts writing the same thing, next thing you know you’ve got a story," Mattis told reporters Tuesday, Washington Examiner reported.

"It’ll die down. … How many times have we been through this now, just since I’ve been here?” he stated.

The comments come after several news outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, among others, have reported Mattis may not be at the Pentagon for much longer.

According to the Times, US President Donald Trump is weighing bringing in a new Pentagon leader who would be more outspoken in his support for Trump. Meanwhile, the Times also claimed that Mattis was growing tired of rejecting Trump's proposals.

But Mattis told reporters that he has not considered leaving his post, and instead said, "I think about doing my job each day".

“Of course I don’t think about leaving. I love it here. I’m thinking about retiring right here. I’ll get a little place down on the Potomac,” Mattis added.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in January he intended to remain at his post all of 2018 and also denied reports about the potential of him leaving the administration prior to his ousting by Trump in March.

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