Will General Mattis Have a Back Seat on the Trump Train?

The ambitious and unwieldy Trump policy agenda will likely generate severe budget and deficit tensions in his coalition sooner than expected.  And there appears to be more momentum and agreement behind the president-elect’s infrastructure, tax cut and deregulation plans than his big defense spending increases.  Prospective defense secretary James Mattis will need to quickly carve out some core modernization initiatives that he can own and fight for, or risk getting devoured in the Washington budget and policy wars like so many of his predecessors. I have written a commentary on this for The National Interest here.