US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said President Donald Trump has assured him of his full support, one day after Trump appeared to cast doubt over the Pentagon chief’s fate. Speaking to reporters as he flew from Washington to Ho Chi Minh City at the start of a week-long Asia trip, Mattis said he had spoken directly to Trump by phone late Monday morning, Washington time, AFP reported. “He said, ‘I’m 100 percent with you’,” Mattis noted. The remark comes after US broadcaster CBS on Sunday aired an interview with Trump, in which he suggested Mattis may be headed out the Pentagon door. “It could be that he is. I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves.” Earlier on the flight to Vietnam, Mattis said: “I’m on his team. We have never talked about me leaving… We just continue doing our job.”
