James Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as secretary of the Defense Department, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Dan Lamothe writes Trump announced his plan to appoint Mattis during a post-election rally Thursday in Cincinnati.
The appointment of Mattis, who retired in 2013 as head of the U.S. Central Command, would require Congress to approve a measure to waive a federal law that requires a veteran to wait seven years after retirement from active duty prior to taking the DoD post, Lamothe reports.
He also served for three years as supreme allied commander of transformation for NATO, the report added.
Mattis has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and has delivered speeches on military policy since his retirement, according to a report by Tom Vanden Brook and David M Jackson for USA Today.
Mattis, who served in the Marine Corps for more than four decades, is likely to address issues related to the Islamic State militant organization, Russian aggression and China’s actions in the South China Sea once he assumes the defense chief post, USA Today reported.
