Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan took up the reins of the US armed forces Tuesday by praising his predecessor, newly ousted Jim Mattis, and seeking to reassure the country that it remains safe.

“Under the direction of President Trump, the Department of Defense remains focused on safeguarding our nation,” Shanahan said in a statement released on New Year’s Day.

“We have deep respect for Secretary Mattis’ lifetime of service, and it has been a privilege to serve as his deputy secretary,” he continued.

“As acting secretary of defense, I now look forward to working with President Trump to carry out his vision alongside strong leaders including the service secretaries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commanders, and senior personnel in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.”

On Dec. 20, a day after Trump abruptly called for the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Mattis announced he would step down – writing a two-page letter of resignation in which he rebuked the president’s defense and foreign policies.

The retired four-star Marine general initially planned to resign at the end of February to allow Trump time to find a replacement, but the president later announced that Mattis would leave on Jan. 1 instead.

Trump then named Shanahan, a former Boeing executive with scant government and foreign policy experience, as the acting defense secretary.

In his farewell memo Monday, Mattis encouraged all Defense Department employees to “keep the faith and hold fast.”

“Our Department’s leadership, civilian and military, remains in the best possible hands,” wrote Mattis, who had been widely regarded as a moderating force against the president’s volatility.

In his statement Tuesday, Shanahan added: “The Department of Defense continues to be one of our nation’s bedrock institutions. Our foundational strength lies in the remarkable men and women who volunteer to serve our country and protect our freedoms, while making immense personal sacrifice.

“It is an honor to work with such a dedicated team committed to the greatness of our nation.”</s>In his first statement to the forces, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says he looks forward to working with President Trump; Lucas Tomlinson reports from the Pentagon. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com</s>WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump, who aides said has been frustrated by news coverage of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s scathing resignation letter, abruptly announced Sunday that he was removing Mattis two months before his planned departure and installing Patrick Shanahan as acting defense secretary.

Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who has been Mattis’ deputy at the Pentagon, will assume the top job on an acting capacity beginning Jan. 1, Trump said.

Mattis resigned in protest last week after Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria over the strong objections of Mattis and others on the national security team. Brett McGurk, the top U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group, also resigned in protect over Trump’s Syria decision.

In his Thursday resignation letter, Mattis delivered a sharp rebuke of Trump’s worldview and cast the president’s foreign policy positions as a threat to the nation.

Mattis said in the letter that he would resign his post on Feb. 28, to allow for a smooth transition to the next defense secretary. But Trump decided to hasten the process, announcing Sunday on Twitter that Shanahan would replace Mattis imminently.

“I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019,” Trump wrote.

“Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!”

The announcement appeared to catch Pentagon officials off guard. Shanahan was traveling away from Washington when Trump tweeted his decision, and a spokesman for Shanahan declined to comment.

Another defense official, who is close to Mattis and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said, “I think it’s fair to say that there is a lot of uncertainty about this week. I think all of this is coming down in the last hour.”

Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, issued a statement Sunday that did not directly address the personnel changes. “The secretary of defense serves at the pleasure of the president,” the statement read. “The department remains focused on national security.”

Trump initially praised Mattis for serving as defense secretary “with distinction” and achieving “tremendous progress.” But as he consumed media coverage in the hours and days that followed Mattis’ resignation, Trump vented to advisers about the narrative that took hold of the revered four-star Marine Corps general and military intellectual walking out on Trump because he believed the president’s erratic decisions were threatening the world order.

Although Mattis’ letter initially annoyed the president, the coverage of it was even more difficult to stomach, according to a senior administration official. Trump told aides that he especially resented the narrative of Mattis as a manager of Trump who served as a human guardrail against the president’s impulses, the official said.

In recent days, Trump went so far as to tell White house aides that he does not need Mattis and that his defense secretary was not as important a figure as others believed, the official said.

Trump was not shy about sharing his frustrations publicly. On Saturday, he complained on Twitter that he was not getting enough credit for the Syria withdrawal: “If anybody but your favorite President, Donald J. Trump, announced that, after decimating ISIS in Syria, we were going to bring our troops back home (happy & healthy), that person would be the most popular hero in America. With me, hit hard instead by the Fake News Media. Crazy!”

Then the president took a shot directly at Mattis, with a bit of revisionist history. When he picked Mattis to be defense secretary before the start of his presidency, Trump showered praise on him, reveling in the general’s battlefield valor, calling him by his nickname “Mad Dog” and comparing him to the decorated World War II Army general George Patton.

“He is one of the most effective generals that we’ve had in many, many decades, an extraordinary leader of our time who has committed his life to his love for our country,” Trump said in a Dec. 6, 2016, speech announcing the nomination. “General Mattis is the living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto, ‘semper fidelis,’ always faithful. And the American people are fortunate that man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense under his leadership.”

But on Saturday night, Trump wrote on Twitter, “When President Obama ingloriously fired Jim Mattis, I gave him a second chance. Some thought I shouldn’t, I thought I should. Interesting relationship-but I also gave all of the resources that he never really had. Allies are very important-but not when they take advantage of U.S.”

Trump also lashed out at McGurk’s resignation, casting the top diplomat as a bit player. The president wrote in a Saturday night tweet, “Brett McGurk, who I do not know, was appointed by President Obama in 2015. Was supposed to leave in February but he just resigned prior to leaving. Grandstander? The Fake News is making such a big deal about this nothing event!”

In replacing Mattis, at least temporarily, Trump has picked Shanahan, who made his name as an executive at Boeing, where he worked for decades, dealing at times with the aviation behemoth’s commercial aircraft and missile defense programs.

Since his arrival at the Pentagon, Shanahan has emphasized making the department more efficient and business-friendly and has won plaudits at the White House by pushing through Trump’s vision for a space force, against the wishes of many of the building’s leaders and uniformed brass.

Shanahan also has overseen the Pentagon’s audit, its development of a new missile defense policy that still hasn’t been released and a fledgling effort to reduce waste in military expenditures.

Shanahan lacks the kind of foreign policy experience that has become customary among defense secretaries, putting someone atop the Pentagon who lacks the deeply seated views on matters such as withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan that Mattis held.

If Shanahan stays on as a permanent defense secretary, he is unlikely to push strongly held views on those conflict - and, when paired with the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, could usher in a shift in power further toward the military brass.

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 The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, Paul Sonne and Missy Ryan contributed to this report.</s>Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Tells Department To Defend The Constitution In Farewell

On his final day, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sent a farewell letter to the Defense Department's troops and civilians. He expressed confidence the department's workforce will remain "undistracted."</s>Retired Gen. Jim Mattis, the outgoing Secretary of Defense, told staff at the Department of Defense to “keep the faith in our country” in a farewell message sent on Monday.

The short letter came on Mattis’ last day as Secretary of Defense, after he was forced out of the post following a clash with President Donald Trump over the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

On February 1, 1865, President Lincoln sent to General Ulysses S. Grant a one sentence telegram. It read: “Let nothing which is transpiring, change, hinder, or delay your military movements, or plans.” Our Department’s leadership, civilian and military, remains in the best possible hands. I am confident that each of you remains undistracted from our sworn mission to support and defend the Constitution while protecting our way of life. Our Department is proven to be at its best when the times are most difficult. So keep the faith in our country and hold fast, alongside our allies, aligned against our foes. It has been my high honor to serve at your side. May God hold you safe on the air, on land, and at sea.

One day after President Trump unexpectedly announced U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria, Mattis announced he would be resigning.

His resignation letter was seen as a rebuke of Trump’s military policy, including his rhetorical attacks on NATO and other longtime U.S. allies. It ended with, “you have a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours.”

Mattis was originally meant to leave his post at the end of February, in an effort to ensure a smooth handoff of control of the Pentagon. However, on Dec. 23, Trump abruptly moved Mattis’ resignation date forward to Jan. 1, 2019.

Mattis is scheduled to transfer responsibility to his deputy, Patrick Shanahan, on Monday evening.</s>With Mattis Out, How Will The Pentagon Transition Under Shanahan?

Steve Inskeep talks with Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies about acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who takes over from Jim Mattis on Jan. 1.</s>Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issued a farewell letter Monday morning to all Department of Defense employees as his time in the Department draws to an end.

In the letter, Mattis, who will turn defense secretary duties over to current Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan before ringing in the new year, instructs DoD personnel to "keep the faith in our country and hold fast, alongside our allies, aligned against our foes.”

The highly respected former Marine Corps general announced his resignation as secretary of defense Dec. 20, a noteworthy decision in that it came just one day after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to be pulled out of Syria.

In his resignation letter, Mattis wrote that America must maintain “strong alliances” and show “respect to those allies," before citing the “Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations” as proof of what such alliances can accomplish.

Mattis intended to stay on until Feb. 28 to allow the president ample time to find “a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours," he wrote, but just days after the resignation letter was circulated, President Trump announced he was pushing Mattis out early, with Shanahan assuming acting secretary duties Jan. 1.

“Let nothing which is transpiring, change, hinder, or delay your military movements, or plans," he wrote, quoting a telegram President Abraham Lincoln sent to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in February 1865.

“Our Department’s leadership, civilian and military, remains in the best possible hands," he continued. “I am confident that each of you remains undistracted from our sworn mission to support and defend the Constitution while protecting our way of life. Our Department is proven to be at its best when the times are most difficult.”

Mattis has been highly regarded by both Republicans and Democrats as secretary of defense, but no demographic has held CHAOS in as favorable a light as the military, a group he addressed in his final sign-off.

“It has been my high honor to serve at your side," he wrote. "May God hold you safe in the air, on land, and at sea.”</s>President Donald Trump criticized former defense secretary Jim Mattis' performance on Wednesday, as acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan stepped into his new job and the U.S. military sought to make sense of the president's murky plans for the war in Syria.

Trump questioned how well Mattis had served as Pentagon chief, and pointed out that the retired Marine general had been removed early by the Obama administration from his last position as chief of U.S. Central Command over policy disagreements.

"What's he done for me? How had he done in Afghanistan? Not too good," Trump said. "As you know President Obama fired him, and essentially so did I."

Trump's comments came as the Pentagon attempted to show stability in the wake of Mattis' departure, who is beloved by many in Trump's political base. Mattis resigned Dec. 20 citing policy disagreements with the president, but had said he would stay on through the end of February. Days later, Trump forced him out.

The comments came as the Pentagon attempted to show stability in the wake of Mattis' departure, and were aimed at a figure who is beloved by many in the military and Trump's political base. The defense secretary resigned Dec. 20 while citing policy disagreements with the president, and was forced out by Trump before the end of the year rather than staying through the end of February, as Mattis had planned.

Shanahan said Wednesday in a statement that he has tapped David Norquist, an undersecretary of defense who serves as comptroller, to perform the duties of the deputy defense secretary while Shanahan moves up from that position to serve as acting defense secretary. Norquist has served since June 2017 as the Defense Department's chief financial officer, and has "insight into virtually every tenet of this department," Shanahan said.

Shanahan took over for Mattis on New Year's Day after Trump removed Mattis from his position in an abrupt Dec. 23 decision. Mattis had submitted his resignation letter to Trump three days earlier citing disagreements over policy decisions three days earlier, but planned to stay as Pentagon chief through the end of February to provide continuity during transition to a new leader.

A U.S. official said Shanahan has met with senior civilian and military officials at the Pentagon and instructed them to continue their focus on the priorities identified in the Pentagon's National Defense Strategy, particularly competition with China. He was expected to speak with congressional leaders and officials from allied countries later in the day.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the transition, said Shanahan's tenure as deputy Pentagon chief had prepared him for his new role and enabled him to "hit the ground running."

With Mattis gone, another planned move - bringing in Marine Maj. Gen. Burke Whitman to serve as a new senior spokesman - will not happen. Whitman was expected to brief the media in 2019 alongside chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, who abruptly resigned on New Year's Eve as Mattis left the Pentagon. White is under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general amid accusations that she had subordinate staff members carry out menial tasks for her in violation of Pentagon rules.

The changes came as the Pentagon grapples with Trump's desire to withdrawal all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria and cut down the 14,000 that are in Afghanistan. Trump issued withdrawal orders for Syria on Dec. 19, and also directed the Pentagon to draw up plans to roughly reduce the number of service members in Afghanistan by half, U.S. officials have said.

Trump initially wanted all of the U.S. troops out of Syria within 30 days, triggering Mattis' resignation and concerns from Republicans and Democrats that the decision would create new chaos in the region. The president, in a video posted on his Twitter account Dec. 19, said that U.S. troops were "all coming back" from Syria, "and they're coming back now."

The president has since softened on that approach, saying in a tweet Monday that U.S. officials are "slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families," while service members who remain deployed in Syria continue to fight remnants of the Islamic State.

Trump has agreed to give the military about four months to completely depart from Syria, according to three U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy discussions. That development was first first reported by the New York Times.

But U.S. officials suggested Wednesday that the plan remains unclear. While Trump agreed to a 120-day timeline, military officials have cautioned that an additional month or two would allow for a smoother transition and hope to persuade the president to allow for a longer delay, the officials said.

Officials at the State Department, meanwhile, have struggled to explain the U.S. strategy in Syria to key foreign partners invested in the conflict, given the possibility that Trump's advisers might persuade him to back off his initial withdrawal plan.

Trump has expressed exasperation at the criticism he has received for his plans to withdraw from the conflicts, which he says are costly and unpopular.

"I am the only person in America who could say that, 'I'm bringing our great troops back home, with victory,' and get BAD press," Trump tweeted Monday.

Pentagon officials, who rarely discuss troop movements before they occur, have declined to say how long a withdrawal will take.

"We are focused on a deliberate and controlled withdrawal of forces, taking all measures possible to ensure our troops' safety as they continue in their mission of an enduring defeat of ISIS," said Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman. "Out of concern for operational security, we are not going to discuss operational details."

In the Pentagon's history, there have been two previous acting defense secretaries: William P. Clements Jr. and William Howard Taft IV. Clements held the post for 39 days in 1973 after President Nixon appointed Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson as attorney general, and Taft led the Pentagon for 60 days as the Senate rejected President George H.W. Bush's first Pentagon chief nominee, John Tower, amid allegations of womanizing and alcohol abuse.</s>By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jim Mattis says Trump deserves a defense secretary ‘whose views are better aligned with yours,’ says he’s stepping down.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jim Mattis says Trump deserves a defense secretary ‘whose views are better aligned with yours,’ says he’s stepping down.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>Defense Secretary James Mattis is signing off at midnight Monday, as he hands the reins over to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Mattis is leaving his post early than first announced, after Mr. Trump moved up his departure date.

Mattis had opposed a quick withdrawal from Syria, and his resignation letter stirred concern about national security even among the president's staunchest allies, like Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Mattis' replacement is a former defense contractor with no military experience.

Here is what Mattis wrote to the Pentagon in his farewell letter, obtained by CBS News correspondent David Martin:

The announcement that Mattis would leave the administration — followed by a string of other top departures — took Washington by surprise earlier this month. In his resignation letter, Mattis cited differences with the president, in what many interpreted as a stern rebuke from a quiet and reserved retired Marine general who avoided the spotlight.

"You have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours," Mattis wrote in his resignation letter.
Patrick M. Shanahan becomes the acting United States secretary of defense following the resignation of Jim Mattis.