Is Secretary of Defense James Mattis seeing his final days in office? It’s one of the questions circulating throughout Washington after a New York Times article published on Friday revealed a growing rift between the President and the Secretary of Defense. According to the article, Mattis is reportedly growing tired of President Trump’s erratic decision making style, and aides to the President have said he’s frustrated with Mattis’ hesitancy to stump for Trump in the mainstream press.

While any talk of Mattis resigning is purely speculative, many find the rift troubling. Talking with Boston Public Radio this morning, WGBH news analyst and the Founder of the Groundtruth Project Charlie Sennott said that Mattis is one of the last informed voices left in Trump’s orbit, and his loss could be even more troublesome for the US’ strained relationship with the rest of the world.

“No matter where you come from politically, no matter if you’re blue or red, or left or right, there’s a consensus in America that the President is ill prepared to understand what’s happening on the ground,” Sennott said. “Mattis has played this incredibly important role on the President’s team of being the one who steers [the President on] a course of responsibility, integrity and moderation.”

Sennott thinks the split between Mattis and Trump is just another symptom of his domineering management style. While Trump campaigned on the promise of bringing his business acumen to the White House, in actuality, his inability to forge strong relationships with lawmakers, and even his own cabinet, has increasingly left the President and his staff isolated from the rest of the government.

“This is a leadership style that Trump brings to the presidency, that has been consistently at odds with the world, which is he thinks like a CEO,” Sennott said. “Relationships for him are transactional. That’s why so many of the negotiations are not multi-lateral anymore, they’re bi-lateral.”

In the second year of his presidency, Trump is playing a dangerous game of chicken with the rest of Washington, D.C. and America’s allies: adapt to his decision making style or lose him all together. It’s a style that has arguably allowed him to amass a $4 billion fortune, and what nearly 60 percent of his fans cited as their reason for supporting Trump, but Sennott is skeptical that this attitude will serve him well as president.

“[Trump] is like Tony Soprano who had his circle, and if he saw someone who didn’t laugh hard enough at his jokes he’d take them outside. That’s not the way you get true information, and a president needs that information,” Sennott said. “We’re seeing one of the weaknesses of Trump’s leadership styles, which may have appealed to the American people — and they vote — but doesn’t work from within.”