President Donald Trump’s controversial tweet which promised to restore a ban on transgender service members in the military caught the Pentagon off guard while Defense Secretary James Mattis was on vacation this week, The Hill reported Sunday.
“It’s never a good sign when a major policy pronouncement is made that was clearly not coordinated with senior leadership,” a source told The Hill. “I can tell you, no matter how they’re spinning it, I was there that day, and everybody was caught — all the senior officers who were left there with Gen. Mattis on vacation — they were all caught totally flat footed.
“They were all scrambling because they were getting killed by Congress for not giving a heads up.”
Secretary Mattis has been directed by the president to conduct a six-month review of the transgender military policy, but President Trump announced a change via Twitter, reportedly before informing the
