>Mattis was very much anti-mercenary not so much Trump. mercenary at this point in the wars is the way to go.
After the the Obama purge and with the number of Obama flunkie holdovers still around can we even trust the current military not to leak plans?
Might be Prince and his crew of former mil are more loyal to POTUS than the current military across the board.
I'm not saying Mattis was comped, rather I think he was someone loyal to the military and POTUS who knows the turf and can smoke out the flunkies. It's not unusual, say, in a hostile takeover to keep some of the old crew on board to shake out the saboteurs. So, in that vein, Mattis's task inside the admin may be finished up.