He was fine keeping silent while Trump was committing all manner of high crimes and misdemeanors, but insulting Mattis was a bridge too far.Speaking at a New York charity event on Thursday, the day after the US president demeaned him as “the world’s most overrated general”, [Trump's former Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis,] joked that he took it as a compliment.
“I’m not just an overrated general. I’m the greatest, the world’s most overrated,” he told diners at the annual Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation dinner.
“I’m honoured to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,” he said. “So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me.”
[...]
Mattis resigned last December after Trump said he intended to pull 2,000 American troops out of Syria. In his resignation letter, the retired Marine general told Trump he had “the right to have a secretary of defence whose views are better aligned with yours”.
Since then, he has largely refrained from publicly criticising the administration, saying he owed the commander-in-chief “a duty of silence”.
But he did save an insult for Trump at the gala.
“I earned my spurs on the battlefield … and Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor,” Mattis said.
Guardian
Generals don't owe the Commander in Chief a duty of silence over theirr duty to protect and defend the Consitution and the country. Overrated may be apt. But he'll be a media and Democrat hero now.
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