Mattis Told Woodward He Agreed Trump Was a Uniquely Dangerous Threat

The former defense secretary has stayed mum this campaign. But he let his opinions be known to the legendary reporter.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis listens as U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions during a meeting with military leaders in the Cabinet Room on October 23, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY JAMES MATTIS privately told Bob Woodward that he agrees with the assessment laid out in his book War, which paints Donald Trump as a unique and menacing threat to the country.

In an interview on The Bulwark Podcast on Thursday, Woodward said he recently received an email from Mattis, who served under Trump before resigning in protest. In the email, Mattis seconded the assessment offered by Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom Woodward quotes as calling Trump “the most dangerous person ever.”

In his book, Woodward recounts being approached by Milley at a 2023 gathering at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., during which Milley pleaded with him to “stop” Trump. Milley went on to call Trump, under whom he also served, “fascist to the core!”

Mattis was also at that 2023 event.

“He thinks the book is important,” Woodward said of the email he received from Mattis. “He believes it’s true. And it was a kind of, you know, ‘Hey, I understand this.’ It was the strongest endorsement.”

Asked specifically if this was an endorsement of the warnings about Trump in the book, Woodward replied, “Yes, most certainly. And an endorsement of this process of trying to explicitly say, ‘Let’s make sure we don’t try to downplay the threat, because the threat is high.’”

The comments to Woodward represent a rare glimpse into how Mattis is viewing the current election. The former defense secretary has been silent as Trump has emerged as the Republican nominee for president and secured a 50/50 chance of winning back the presidency. Mattis did not return a request for comment.

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Mattis resigned from his post in the Trump administration in December 2018 following the then-president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and a series of disagreements over Trump’s approach to international alliances.

“I’ve been informed by four decades of experience, and I just couldn’t connect the dots anymore,” he would later explain.

In the aftermath, he did occasionally let his disdain for Trump be known. Amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, Mattis castigated Trump as “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”

In the wake of the January 6th riots, Mattis put out another statement, accusing Trump of using the presidency to “destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens.” 

In his book, Woodward reports that Mattis, as defense secretary, was so worried that Trump would order a nuclear strike against North Korea that he would sleep in gym clothes in case he received a call to come in overnight.

The full interview with Woodward can be found here.