Tuesday Donald Trump announced that acting Secretary of Defense and former Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan would not seek confirmation and instead resign his post to ‘devote more time to his family’.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions with Iran after the United States accused them of attacking a Japanese tanker in the Gulf of Oman last week despite extremely sketchy evidence supporting the claim. As a result, Shanahan announced that an additional 1,000 troops would be sent to the Middle East as the Neocons in the United States government further beat the drums of war.
This news comes after the FBI had begun an investigation into a 2010 incident involving Shanahan’s former wife who was arrested for punching him in the face. Aside from that, there was a separate domestic incident in which his son was arrested for beating his mom with a baseball bat.
Before Trump made his announcement on Twitter, Shanahan released the following statement regarding the domestic incident:
“After having been confirmed for deputy secretary less than two years ago, it is unfortunate that such a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way as a result of this nomination process. I never laid a hand on my then-wife and cooperated fully in a thorough law enforcement investigation that resulted in her being charged with assault against me — charges which I had dropped in the interest of my family. … I wish nothing but the best for her and regret that my children’s privacy has been violated and they are being forced to relive a tragic situation that we have worked so hard as a family to put behind us.”
It’s unclear whether or not the past domestic issues with Shanahan played a role in his essential resignation today. However what may have been equally or even more concerning with the possibility of his confirmation as SOD was his former status as a Boeing executive who is one of the bigger wartime manufactures in the United States and around the World. If anything, Shanahan’s nomination would have signaled a HUGE conflict of interest.