WASHINGTON—U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sept. 19 flatly dismissed reports suggesting he may be leaving President Donald Trump’s administration in the coming months, saying flatly: “I wouldn’t take it seriously at all.”
“How many times have we been through this, now, just since I’ve been here? It will die down soon, and the people who started the rumor will be allowed to write the next rumor, too,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
