Trump obviously has been reading "The Prince" by Machiavelli...forces Mattis out NOW!

via Washington Post.

President Trump, who aides said has been seething about news coverage of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s scathing resignation letter, abruptly announced Sunday that he was removing Mattis two months before his planned departure and installing Patrick Shanahan as acting defense secretary.

Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who has been Mattis’s deputy at the Pentagon, will assume the top job on an acting capacity beginning Jan. 1, Trump said. The president made the decision hastily in reaction to negative news coverage, according to senior administration officials, one of whom said Trump was eager to retaliate against Mattis and show up the widely respected former general.

Unlike Mattis, Shanahan has not served in the military and has little foreign policy or government experience. Trump plans to conduct a wide-ranging search for a permanent replacement and is interested in candidates from outside the administration, one official said.

Story here. 

Just plain wow.  Should have been expected though.  That resignation letter was the talk of the town.  Some type of reaction SHOULD have been expected. People are saying that this keeps Mattis from speaking on an official level. 

It's more than that.

Mattis doesn't get the opportunity to lay the ground that will see his initiatives carried out.

I don't know whether this is good or bad.  It IS HOWEVER big boy politics.

I can't help but feel this was done on impulse.  I don't think Mattis thought this thru.  He's a skilled tactician but I'm not sure how good he is on the strategic level.  But even if we credit him with being a genius level tactician, this time he slipped.  No way in hell he saw this reaction coming and I think he probably should have.

Bonus for people that made it this far.  I think Machiavelli covered this when he told the prince to be the "beast"!