--- title: James Mattis Roasts Trump After 'Overrated' Jab description: Former Defense Secretary James Mattis had a few jabs for President Donald Trump in a speech he delivered in New York on Thursday. canonical: https://time.com/5704659/james-mattis-donald-trump-jokes/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-18T13:07:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:35:33.528Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Mattis Takes Shot at Trump After President Called Him 'Overrated' og:description: "I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals" og:url: https://time.com/5704659/james-mattis-donald-trump-jokes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0938a3b322f7069/698a047d16d88455dac3724a/james-mattis-trump-jokes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jim Mattis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Mattis Takes Shot at Trump After President Called Him 'Overrated' twitter:description: "I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0938a3b322f7069/698a047d16d88455dac3724a/james-mattis-trump-jokes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Guess I'm the Meryl Streep of Generals.' James Mattis Takes Shot at Trump After President Called Him 'Overrated' by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 18, 2019 1:07 PM UTC  Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, center, delivers the keynote address during the 74th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in New York. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, center, delivers the keynote address during the 74th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in New York.Mary Altaffer—AP by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 18, 2019 1:07 PM UTC Former Defense Secretary [James Mattis](https://time.com/5677440/james-mattis-call-sign-chaos/) had a few jabs for President Donald Trump in a speech on Thursday. Mattis gave the keynote address at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation a day after Trump called him “the world’s most overrated general” during a [tense meeting](https://time.com/5702769/litany-of-defeat-trump-defends-rising-costs-of-strategically-brilliant-mideast-retreat/) with Congressional leaders on Wednesday about withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria. “I’m honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called [Meryl Streep](https://time.com/4629959/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-meryl-streep/) an overrated actress,” Mattis said in his speech. “So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me.” > [](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1185003190690955265) Mattis [resigned as Defense Secretary](https://time.com/5486300/james-mattis-disagree-donald-trump/) in December after Trump announced his plan to pull U.S. forces from Syria. He continued to make jokes about Trump in his speech on Thursday, including a jab at Trump’s repeated deferment from the Vietnam War draft due to [bone spurs](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html?%5Fr=0). “I earned my spurs on the battlefield,” Mattis said. “Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5704659/james-mattis-donald-trump-jokes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5704659/james-mattis-donald-trump-jokes/"},"headline":"'I Guess I'm the Meryl Streep of Generals.' 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