US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will retire "with distinction" at the end of February, President Donald Trump has said, amid indications that the two had differences over the administration's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria.
"General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years," Trump tweeted on Thursday.
"During Jim's tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting...," Trump said.
Trump's Twitter post comes a day after he announced abruptly to withdraw US troops from Syria.
Media reports said this was against the advice of Mattis. In his resignation letter to Trump, Mattis referred to the differences between them, without mentioning the Syria troop withdrawal decision.
"Because you' have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," Mattis said in his resignation letter sent on Thursday.
"The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February," he said.
Mattis is the latest high-profile Trump appointee to leave or be removed this year. While Trump's first secretary of state Rex Tillerson was removed in March, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is leaving at the end of December.
Since Trump assumed office in 2017, several senior officials have quit. These include strategist Steve Bannon, national security adviser Michael Flynn, FBI director James Comey, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, health secretary Tom Price, communications directors Hope Hicks and Anthony Scaramucci, economic adviser Gary Cohn and press secretary Sean Spicer.
