”Mattis kanske slutar, han är som en demokrat”

James Norman Mattis (born 8 September 1950) is the 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense and a former United States Marine Corps general. He commanded the 1st Marine Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and served as the 11th Commander of United States Central Command during the Presidency of Barack Obama.Mattis commanded the United States Joint Forces Command and concurrently served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation from November 2007 to August 2010, prior to replacing General David Petraeus as Commander of United States Central Command. During the Iraq War, he commanded I Marine Expeditionary Force, United States Marine Forces Central Command, and 1st Marine Division.On 20 January 2017, Mattis was confirmed as Secretary of Defense 98–1 by the United States Senate on a waiver, as he had only been three years out of active duty despite U.S. federal law requiring at least seven years of retirement for former military personnel to be appointed Secretary of Defense. He was the first Cabinet member to be confirmed by the Senate and first confirmed member of the Cabinet of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was the only United States Senator to oppose his appointment as Secretary of Defense. As Secretary of Defense, Mattis has affirmed the United States' commitment to defending longtime ally South Korea in the wake of the North Korea crisis. An opponent of proposed collaboration with Russia on military matters, Mattis has consistently stressed Russia's threat to the world order. Mattis has occasionally voiced his disagreement with certain Trump administration policies, opposing the proposed withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and has criticized budget cuts that hamper the ability to monitor the impacts of climate change.