Veteran journalist Bob Woodward outlined a recent email he received from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, where he seemingly agreed with Woodward’s dire warning about a second Trump administration.
During an appearance Thursday on “The Bulwark Podcast,” Woodward told the host that Mattis — who served under former President Trump — acknowledged Gen. Mark Milley’s assessment that the former president is “the most dangerous person ever” and seemed to concur.
”He thinks the book is important,” the muckraker said of Mattis. ”He believes it’s true. And it was a kind of, you know, ‘Hey, I understand this.’ It was the strongest endorsement.”
Woodward also noted that the former defense chief’s email echoed some of his own theories about Trump that he outlined in his new book “War.”
“Yes, most certainly,” he said on the podcast. “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.’”
Mattis was Trump’s first defense secretary. He resigned in December 2018 after a fallout with the former president over the withdrawal of American troops from Syria.
Trump took shots at Mattis in June 2020, calling him the “world’s most overrated general” and criticizing his leadership capabilities. The rebuke came after the former administration official tore into his former boss, arguing he was dividing the nation in wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try,” Mattis wrote at the time.
“Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort,” he continued. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Woodward’s latest comments come as Trump has faced scrutiny over his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That criticism was only exacerbated by the new book, which alleges the former president has still been in contact with Putin.
While the Trump campaign denied the claims, the GOP presidential nominee said, “I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it is a smart thing.”
