The U.S. Defense Department’s top NATO policy official stepped down last week, marking the second departure among the department’s senior civilian leaders in recent weeks as Defense Secretary James Mattis tries to quash rumors that he is also leaving his post after the midterm elections.
Thomas Goffus, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy, departed his post Oct. 26, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Dana White, confirmed to Foreign Policy. Goffus is expected to join the Senate Armed Services Committee as deputy staff director under Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, who will remain as chairman of the powerful committee if Republicans hold on to the Senate in the midterm elections next week.
The departure follows news last week that Robert Karem, the assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, a powerful post that oversees U.S. defense policy, was leaving the Senate-confirmed Pentagon job to work for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). He previously served as a staffer to McConnell and other Republican congressional leaders in.
Jim Townsend, who held Goffus’s role under the Obama administration and said he knew of Goffus’s departure, said it wasn’t unusual for senior officials to leave their posts after two years, given the stress and pressures of senior government jobs.
But the move comes at a delicate time for the Pentagon in an administration marked by chaotic policy processes and fierce political infighting. Sources tell FP that National Security Advisor John Bolton and his deputy are spreading rumors about Mattis’s imminent departure—rumors the secretary and the White House staunchly denied in public statements—in order to squeeze out the retired U.S. Marine Corps general.
One former Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said senior civilians at the Pentagon are eyeing the exit amid rumors of Mattis’s departure following a 60 Minutes interview in which U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the defense chief might not stay on. “Everyone went over to work for Mattis, not to work for Trump, so they’re worried what happens after he leaves.”
As the Pentagon’s top NATO policy official, Goffus oversaw a sharp uptick in funding for U.S. military posture in Europe and a flurry of training exercises with European allies to deter Russian revanchism after Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Even while Trump rattled NATO allies by railing against their laggard defense spending and coddled Russian President Vladimir Putin, his administration has overseen a ramp up in U.S. defense and security commitments to Europe.
