Secretary of Defense James Mattis will retire at the end of February 2019, President Donald Trump announced in a tweet Thursday. Trump tweeted, “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment. General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!” 

 

Mattis, a former Marine Corps four-star general, became secretary of defense in January 2017 after the U.S. Senate confirmed him in a 98-1 vote. He was the first recently retired general to serve in the position since George C. Marshall in the early 1950s.