Donald Trump is forcing defense secretary Jim Mattis to step down on 1 January, two months before his agreed departure, in open payback for the former Marine general’s public rebuke of the president’s decision abruptly to withdraw troops from Syria. Trump stance on shutdown is 'useless' and 'puerile', senior Republican says Read moreTrump issued the bombshell news in characteristic fashion: in a tweet. Sign up for the new US morning briefingThe sudden jolt to the Department of Defense adds to the sense of meltdown that has descended on the White House as it enters Christmas week. He said the White House had made a new offer of somewhere between $1.6bn and $5bn to go towards the costs of building Trump’s border wall with Mexico. On Sunday, after announcing Mattis’s early departure, Trump tweeted that he had “just had a long and productive call” with Erdoğan.

Source: The Guardian December 23, 2018 16:59 UTC