Even among U.S. adversaries, there was unease at the thought that President Trump will direct U.S. foreign policy without the last of his once-vaunted trio of generals to rein him in. “Our concern is who comes next,” said Yue Gang, a retired People’s Liberation Army colonel and military commentator in Beijing. The secretary’s departure was followed by word that the president was also preparing to downsize the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. In his resignation letter, Mattis implicitly rebuked the president for undermining U.S. alliances and failing to recognize the threat posed by the United States' enemies. Mattis, he wrote on Twitter, “is the remaining strong bond across the Atlantic in the Trump administration.

Source: Washington Post December 21, 2018 08:17 UTC