Donald Trump says he 'gave Jim Mattis a second chance", referring to ex-US Marine general's exit as military leader under Barack Obama

Washington DC: United States president Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that he gave Defence Secretary James Mattis a “second chance” after the retired Marine general was “ingloriously fired” from military leadership by former president Barack Obama. [caption id=“attachment_5490801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of US president Donald Trump. Reuters[/caption] Mattis served as the head of the US Central Command between 2010 and 2013. However, he was fired by Obama in 2013 due to his increasingly hawkish stance toward Iran. “When President Obama ingloriously fired Jim Mattis, I gave him a second chance. Some thought I shouldn’t, I thought I should,” Trump wrote on his Twitter handle. Furthermore, the US president asserted that Mattis was better equipped with all the resources following his appointment as the Defence Secretary in January last year. “Interesting relationship — but I also gave all of the resources that he never really had. Allies are very important, but not when they take advantage of US,” Trump tweeted. Earlier this week, Mattis announced his resignation as the Defence Secretary and said he would step down from the post on 28 February , 2019, after failing to persuade Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw the remaining American troops from Syria.