Mattis delegates down and manages up in tricky Trump relationship

James Mattis, the first retired general to serve as secretary of defense in seven decades, has steadily pushed more authority down the chain of command on the battlefield and inside the bureaucracy.

But he’s also managed up more than his predecessors.

By leveraging a unique level of personal rapport with President Donald Trump — and often ducking the media spotlight — Mattis has played an outsize role in keeping critical policies on track in the face of a mercurial and often bombastic commander in chief, according to half a dozen current and former administration officials and Mattis' daily schedule for the first half of the year, which the Pentagon recently released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from a watchdog group.

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