President Donald Trump's friendliness with Russia's president has come back to haunt him throughout his presidency. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images White House Trump claims to be tough on Russia after Mattis resignation

President Donald Trump pushed back on claims that he is unwilling to be tough on Russia and China, writing on Twitter that no one has been harder on U.S. adversaries shortly after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit partly in protest of the president's hesitance to take a firmer stance against rivals.

"There has never been a president who has been tougher (but fair) on China or Russia - Never, just look at the facts. The Fake News tries so hard to paint the opposite picture," Trump wrote Friday on Twitter.


Mattis' resignation largely came in protest of Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and half the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Both moves were widely condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike, but his withdrawal from Syria drew applause from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is allied with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump's most vocal supporters in the Senate, warned the president that removing troops from Syria would be a gift to Russia and Iran, who could use the security vacuum in Syria to easily access its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

Mattis wrote in his resignation letter Thursday that he was at odds with Trump's insular world view and that the president has "the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours" — a shocking rebuke from one of Trump's most senior administration officials. Mattis had long been viewed as a steady hand in a mercurial White House — a narrative that irritated the president.

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Trump has also lambasted the international alliances that have defined American security abroad since World War II as one-sided, urging NATO allies to increase spending in the common defense. Mattis, along with most mainstream international observers, viewed those alliances as critical to global stability and pushed back on antagonizing vital partners.

Trump's friendliness with Russia's president has come back to haunt him throughout his presidency. During a Helsinki summit with Putin this summer, Trump sided with Putin's word over his own intelligence reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Several members of Trump's inner circle are under the microscope or have been charged in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

Trump has repeatedly denied there was any collusion with Russia, though he has spoken admirably about Putin, seemingly putting his rhetoric at odds with Friday's tweet. He was accused of being slow to issue sanctions on Russia for its role in the 2016 elections and the botched assassination of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom last March.

Still, the administration has placed 272 Russian entities and individuals under sanction since the beginning of Trump's presidency for those charges.

Trump's rhetoric toward China has been less forgiving, constantly blaming the People's Republic of distorting trade in its favor and stealing U.S. intellectual property. The Trump administration and the Chinese government escalated a trade battle over the summer on a spate of goods, though the two sides reached a temporary ceasefire earlier this month to allow negotiations.

