Trump picks Patrick Shanahan to be acting defense secretary

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will now leave his post on January 1, tweeting that deputy Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary to cover the accelerated departure.

The move comes just three days after Mattis resigned in protest over Trump's decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria, and delivered a blistering letter to the president that roiled Washington and reportedly angered the White House.

Hours after Mattis announced his resignation to Trump in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday, he released to the public a scathing letter he had given the president that underscored what he said were their differences over the role of American leadership and alliances. In the letter, Mattis said he would stay on until Feb. 28 to help provide a bridge to the next defense chief.

The interim replacement for Mattis is Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing Co.executive who joined the administration in 2017, reinforcing ties between the Defense Department and the Chicago-based defense contractor. Shanahan will serve in an acting capacity until the president nominates a permanent replacement who is confirmed by the Senate.

“Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing,” Trump tweeted. “He will be great!”

Trump wanted Shanahan to get started in the job January 1 to let him get to work laying the groundwork for the fiscal year 2020 budget request and to ensure there is no confusion about defense policy given Mattis’s opposition to the president’s decision to begin withdrawing troops from Syria, according to the administration official.

According to a White House official, Trump wants to streamline the Pentagon to make it more efficient for purchasing and getting better deals and feels Shanahan would be better poised to move that effort forward in the acting role.