Nobody wants to be Trump's defense secretary — and the acting chief may be there indefinitely: report

MSNBC anchor Yasmin Vossoughian said on Monday that the Trump administration is having trouble finding a replacement for Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to a new report in Politico, and that acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan may hold the position "indefinitely".

"Today marks the last day on the job for outgoing defense secretary Jim Mattis," said Vossoughian, segueing from President Donald Trump's morning Twitter tantrum, in which he defended his decision to pull out of Syria while lobbing attacks at unnamed "failed generals" who criticized the decision. "It appears that the short list to replace him is much shorter than the Trump Administration had hoped."

"Few people outside of the administration are pushing to get in line to replace Mattis," she added. "Politico cites the president's decision to pull out U.S. Troops from Syria among other reasons for why there is a lack of willing hopefuls to be the next defense secretary."

GOP Senator Tom Cotton "has no desire" to fill the role, Vossoughian said. Nor does four-star general and former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army Jack Keane.

"Politico says that soon to be acting secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan may be running the department indefinitely," she said, "unless intel chief Dan Coates or someone else catches Trump's eye."

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