Somebody's Been Missing the Adoring Crowds

In April, Donald Trump pledged “at some point, I’ll be so presidential that you people will be so bored.” Despite being president-elect, it seems that particular pivot has yet to come.

On the first day of his self-described “thank you tour”, Trump returned to his bombastic style on the stump at a half-full arena in Cincinnati. He bashed Hillary Clinton [...] while settling scores with the media and former rivals as well as announcing the nomination of former marine general James Mattis to be secretary of defense.

[...]

“We did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn’t we?” to chants of “lock her up” while criticizing conservative critics.

  The Guardian

To be fair, a thank you tour isn't necessarily a bad idea. But shouldn't he be getting those daily briefings?

And what do they call Mattis? Mad Dog, is it?

The president-elect launched an attack on Evan McMullin, his independent, conservative third-party rival in the campaign: “What the hell was he trying to prove? I guess he wanted us to lose the supreme court.” Trump didn’t mention McMullin by name and simply called him “that guy”.

[...]

Trump also gave his usual tirade against “the dishonest media” and expressed his displeasure that it took television networks until after midnight on election day to call his win in Pennsylvania.

Maybe not so much a thank you tour as a grudge tour.

This time, the disdain for the press was far less visible in an arena that was half empty, in part because road closures due to the president-elect’s visit tied up traffic in the area.

Oh, that's perfect.

“Is political Islam in the best interest of the United States?” Mattis said at the Heritage Foundation in 2015, speaking about the separate challenges of the Islamic State and Iranian-backed terrorism. “I suggest the answer is no, but we need to have the discussion. If we won’t even ask the question, how do we even recognize which is our side in a fight?”

  WaPo

So we're back to the crusades now?

To take the job, Mattis will need Congress to pass legislation to bypass a federal law stating that defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years.

No problem. We're going to be getting a whole new set of laws. And we already have a precedent: Gen. George C Marshall in 1950. Remember the Red Scare?

A 1947 national security law said that a general must wait 10 years from leaving active duty before becoming defense secretary. An exception was granted on a one-time basis for Marshall, with lawmakers saying in special legislation at the time that it was the “sense of the Congress that after General Marshall leaves the office of Secretary of Defense, no additional appointments of military men to that office shall be approved.”

Yeah, right.

The 10-year period was reduced to seven years in 2008 for several senior civilian defense positions, including defense secretary.

Who were they trying to push through in 2008?

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel, said Thursday night that she will oppose Mattis becoming Pentagon chief.

“While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver,” she said. “Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”

Kirstie, something tells me you're going to be alone on this one.

Like Trump, Mattis favors a tougher stance against U.S. adversaries abroad, especially Iran. The general, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in April, said that while security discussions often focus on terrorist groups such as the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, the Iranian regime is “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.”

[...]

“The president-elect is smart to think about putting someone as respected as Jim Mattis in this role,” said a former senior Pentagon official. “He’s a warrior, scholar and straight shooter — literally and figuratively. He speaks truth to everyone and would certainly speak truth to this new commander in chief.”

Oh, yes. Let's take on Iran.

Mattis occasionally has come under scrutiny for impolitic remarks. Most notably, he said in 2005 during a panel discussion in San Diego that “it’s fun to shoot some people” and “I like brawling.”

So drop him off in Belfast and give him a pint.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.