Aside from officially announcing retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as his pick for secretary of defense, President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday described with soaring superlatives how he plans to rebuild and equip a military that is “stronger than ever before.”
With more specificity than Trump has previously approached the issue, he promised to increase funding for the military and modernize its equipment. He promised to ask Congress to eliminate sequestration in his first budget submission in 2017. The Obama administration and Congress have been working to reverse the automatic spending cuts for four years without a resolution.
Rather than simply build a larger military, Trump vowed to provide modern equipment and weapons for the services. He did not specify what equipment or capabilities he plans to mandate be issued, but said it would be the best.
“All men and women in uniform will have the supplies, support, equipment, training, services, medical care and resources they need to get the job done incredibly well and perfectly,” Trump said. “We’re going to have the finest equipment in the world. It’s going to be new. It’s going to be modern. It’s going to be clean. It’s going to be the best.”
Trump plans to build a larger military than exists and that is stronger than the U.S. has ever had. That force, of still indeterminate size, would be used for deterrence of foreign wars. Trump called for the end to U.S. military interventionism in the same breath that he vowed to destroy the Islamic State militant group. The money now spent on overseas military presence will instead be invested in rebuilding what he called a “depleted” force.
“We don’t want to have a depleted military because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that, just, we shouldn’t be fighting in.”
Trump leaked his own nomination of Mattis at a rally last week but waited until the Dec. 7 speech in Fayetteville, N.C. – home of Fort Bragg – to bring “Mad Dog” Mattis onstage as his official choice to lead the Defense Department.
“He is one of the most effective generals that we’ve had in many, many decades,” Trump said. “The American people are fortunate that a man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense.”
Mattis will join several other high-ranking retired military officers in Trump’s cabinet. Former Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been named Trump’s senior national security adviser. Fellow Marine Gen. John Kelly was tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Retired Gen. David Petraeus is in the running for secretary of state, although there are several contenders for that slot.
Mattis will need a waiver from Congress to serve as Defense Secretary. A 1947 law initially required military officers to be out of uniform for a decade before serving as the Pentagon chief. The mandated separation was later changed to 7 years, but Mattis has only been retired for about three and one-half years.
Mattis took the stage to loud applause and whoops from an adoring crowd of sign-waving Trump supporters. He accepted the nomination with the condition that Congress grants him a waiver.
“Thank you, president-elect, for the confidence you have shown in me,” Mattis said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to return to our troops, their families, the civilians of the Department of Defense, because I know how committed they are and devoted they are to the defense of our country, the defense of our constitution.
“With our allies strengthened, with our country strengthened, I look forward to being the civilian leader, so long and the Congress gives me the waiver and the Senate votes to consent,” he added.
Often referred to as a “warrior-monk,” Mattis is revered for his ferocious battlefield leadership and his study of history. He is known for forceful opposition to Iran and the Russian hybrid-style aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
Mattis likely will “relish development of a new strategy in Syria and against Iran, according to defense consultant Jim McAleese.
Expect Mattis to review the affordability of the full ground-based strategic deterrence (GBSD) ICBM replacement program but go to bat for the Navy’s Columbia-class and Ohio-class submarine replacement efforts as well as the Air Force B-21 bomber program, McAleese told Defense Daily in an email.
Mattis also is likely to be strong proponent of Navy shipbuilding in general, to ensure robust forward-presence against Chinese Pacific-expansion, McAleese said.
Mattis has drawn the vocal support of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), House Armed Service Committee Chair Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford and former Secretaries of Defense Bob Gates, Leon Panetta and Dick Cheney.
The only prominent opposition so far is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) , a member of SASC who said in a statement “civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”
Currently on a farewell circumnavigation of the globe, Defense Secretary Ash Carter voiced confidence in Mattis as a capable successor but would not comment on whether his nomination threatens the principle of civilian control of the military.
“I know Jim extremely well. He’s an extremely capable person,” Carter told reporters. “I’ve known him for literally for decades. “Not only am I committed to helping him to hit the ground running, but it’ll be an easy thing to do because I know him well and I’ll help him in every way I can. The issue of his conformation is an issue for the next president and for the Congress. So, it’s not an issue for me to comment on.”