YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. U.S President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Defense Secretary James Mattis will remain in his job, a day after a report, denied by Mattis, that he had made disparaging remarks about the president, Reuters reports.

Asked by reporters at the White House whether he was considering replacing the Pentagon chief, Trump said: “He’ll stay right there. We’re very happy with him. We’re having a lot of victories.”

Mattis was quoted as having told associates that Trump acted like “a fifth- or sixth-grader,” in excerpts published by the Washington Post of a book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.

Mattis issued a statement dismissing the book as “a uniquely Washington brand of literature” and saying the contemptuous words about Trump attributed to him “were never uttered by me or in my presence.”

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan