Hot times. Bloomberg yesterday afternoon:

Ex-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis condemned his former boss, President Donald Trump, over his aggressive rhetoric and strategy to quell protests that erupted after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody.

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The sharply worded and unprecedented rebuke from Trump’s first defense chief will raise pressure on the president, who this week threatened to dispatch active duty troops to quash protests and drew widespread condemnation when the square in front of the White House was forcibly cleared before he walked to a historic church to hold a Bible for photographers.

The president responded Wednesday evening saying that he “didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about” Mattis. “His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations,” Trump wrote in one of a pair of tweets.

Oh, interesting, because Trump’s primary strength is not military or governmental or intellectual or policy-wonkish or diplomatic or judicial or public spirited, but rather fomenting rage and hatred.

Mattis’s statement, first published in The Atlantic, came on what had already been a rough day for the defense establishment.

Trump’s current secretary, Mark Esper, angered White House officials by publicly distancing himself from Trump’s potential use of the 1807 Insurrection Act to deploy active duty forces to cities confronting protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

So Esper publicly distanced himself from Trump’s military takeover plans. Good!

It remains to be seen if Mattis’s denunciation will have lasting political power, but it strikes at the heart of what the president has pitched as one of his strengths: His fulsome praise of the military as part of his “America First” approach to the world, even while he frequently accuses the national security establishment of trying to undermine him and his administration.

Part of his Murka First approach yes but also part of his love of force and domination as opposed to argument and persuasion – part of his mindless love of violence and hatred and rage. He doesn’t have any serious understanding of the military, much less of foreign policy, he just loves the association with maximum violence.

Despite Trump’s praise of Mattis when he took office, by the end of the defense chief’s tenure, their relationship was shattered. Upon his departure, Mattis he issued a blunt resignation letter that amounted to a public reproach of Trump’s “America First” mantra.

“We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances,” Mattis wrote. “Because you have the right to have a secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”

What I’m saying. Trump doesn’t give an actual shit about our security, prosperity and values or the solidarity of our alliances. He just wants to order people killed and then watch the real-life war movie.

In his statement this week, Mattis took aim at Esper, too. Without naming the Pentagon chief, but citing the military jargon the Defense secretary and other top officials have used in describing the geography of the current protests, Mattis said, “We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.”’

Esper had used the “battlespace” term during a call with governors on Monday, before U.S. authorities used smoke bombs and pepper-spray-like devices to clear out the peaceful protest outside the White House.

Jeezus. I missed that. Battlespace!

But since then apparently Esper has gone all squishy like Mattis so now he’s on the naughty stool too.

President Donald Trump confronted his Defense secretary, Mark Esper, after the Pentagon chief publicly opposed the idea of deploying the military to contain protests, according to people familiar with the matter.

Separately, the president later asked top advisers if they thought Esper could still be effective in his position, two people familiar with the discussions said on Wednesday night.

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Esper met with Trump in the Oval Office after telling reporters at the Pentagon that active-duty military forces to perform law enforcement within the U.S. is “a matter of last resort” and that the National Guard was better suited to the task.

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The defense chief also appeared to back away from his boss by saying that while he knew he would be joining Trump to walk into Lafayette Square in front of the presidential residence on Monday, he was not aware of specific plans, including what would happen when the group reached St. John’s Episcopal Church.

He said he knew they were going to the church but not that it was for a photo op.

(Well, given Trump, what else would it be? Hardly a quiet thoughtful visit to ask how everyone is doing.)

His remarks generated irritation at the White House, where three Trump aides who asked not to be identified said the secretary should have moderated his comments to draw less of a distinction with the president.

No, actually, quite the reverse. Everyone’s comments should draw a huge distinction between self and Trump, because Trump is a murderous violence-loving racist monster.