(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 28, 2018 US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford (L) as he holds a meeting with Indonesia Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is not a fan of appearing on television and he would rather not see his name in the newspaper. In other words, the former Marine general likes to do keep his head down and do his job with the least fuss a top member of President Donald Trump's cabinet can muster.But this week, the Pentagon chief found himself smack in the middle of a media firestorm in Washington. Veteran political reporter Bob Woodward, in his new book about Trump, describes a White House mired in a perpetual "nervous breakdown", with staff battling to corral the angry impulses of a paranoid leader.