US president Donald Trump suspects his defence secretary, Gen Jim Mattis, "could be" heading for the exit.
Mr Trump was responding to a specific question from journalist Lesley Stahl, for an interview to air Sunday night on CBS News' 60 Minutes, about whether Gen Mattis was "going to leave".
“Well, I don’t know,” the president said. “He hasn’t told me that.”
“Do you want him to?” Stahl pressed.
“I have a very good relationship with him,” Mr Trump said. “I had lunch with him two days ago. I have a very good relationship with him.
“It could be that he is. I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. But Gen Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington.”
Gen Mattis was a US Marines commander in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was elevated under George W Bush to command the United States Joint Forces Command. Under Barack Obama, he became commander of US Central Command.
The defence department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In its first two years, the Trump administration has witnessed an unprecedented flow of high-profile departures. This week, UN ambassador Nikki Haley announced she was stepping down.
In a book published last month, journalist Bob Woodward depicted Gen Mattis as directly ignoring an expressed desire by Mr Trump to assassinate Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and comparing Mr Trump's understanding of tensions on the Korean peninsula to that of "a fifth- or sixth-grader".
Gen Mattis denied making such statements.
The defence secretary is scheduled to embark for Vietnam on Tuesday in a trip that originally included a Beijing stop, since cancelled. – Guardian