Mattis Resigning as Pentagon Chief After Clashes With Trump

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Current U.S. Secretary of Defense and retired four-star Marine Corps General James Mattis has submitted a resignation letter to President Donald Trump.

"Because you have the right to 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," the letter read.

"Everything that indicates stability, everything that indicates strength, everything that indicates knowledge is leaving this administration," said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.) of Mattis' resignation.

The resignation comes after Mattis disagreed with the president about the removal of U.S. troops from both Syria and Afghanistan.

White House officials indicated the decision to withdraw military forces was the president's. It was a move that brought sharp rebukes from many Trump supporters.

"I don't know how this decision was made. It literally came out of left field," said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Mattis, perhaps the most respected foreign policy official in Trump's administration, will leave by the end of February after two tumultuous years struggling to soften and moderate the president's hardline and sometimes sharply changing policies.

Mattis went to the White House with his resignation letter in hand to meet with the president and spoke to Trump for about 45 minutes, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the incident but speaking on conditions of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

There was no confrontation between the two men, the official said, and there was no one issue that caused the resignation. However, the official said, Syria likely was the last straw for Mattis.

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