Trump: Shanahan withdraws as defense secretary nominee

Washington — US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan decided to withdraw from the process to make the appointment permanent.

“Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family,” the president said on Twitter.

“I thank Pat for his outstanding service and will be naming Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper, to be the new Acting Secretary of Defense. I know Mark, and have no doubt he will do a fantastic job!,” Trump added.

Media outlets reported last week that the president was having doubts about his choice of Shanahan as permanent successor to retired Gen. James Mattis , who resigned last December.

Trump denied those accounts.

In a story posted online Tuesday minutes after Trump’s tweets, The Washington Post suggested that Shanahan withdrew because of concerns that the Senate confirmation process would draw attention to past instances of domestic violence in his family.

The newspaper cited court records of a 2010 incident in which Shanahan’s then-wife was arrested for punching him in the face, and of a November 2011 episode that saw the couple’s 17-year-old son strike his mother with a baseball bat.

While Kimberly Shanahan (who now goes by Kimberley Jordinson) was never charged with hitting her then-husband, Will Shanahan was convicted of a felony for the attack on his mother, which occurred after the couple separated.

The daily said it uncovered the court documents in January and that Patrick Shanahan had been discussing the incidents with Post reporters since then.

“Bad things can happen to good families ... and this is a tragedy, really,” Shanahan said in an interview with The Post published this week, adding that having the matter come out in Senate confirmation hearings “will ruin my son’s life.”

The 56-year-old former Boeing engineer and executive was named deputy defense secretary in July 2017 and stepped into the top job following Mattis’ resignation over policy differences with the president.

Shanahan has the distinction of being the longest-serving acting defense secretary in US history.

His tenure at the Pentagon has coincided with a number of cases that raised questions about how effectively the US Armed Forces deals with domestic violence in military families. EFE