25 February 2018

Thin Ice

The West Wing word this week is that Donald Trump's National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster may soon be eased out of his position and back into the military, where he until recently served as a three-star general (details here).

The President has been openly fueding with his own senior adviser for months, but the relationship worsened recently when McMaster said in a public forum with cameras rolling that it was "incontrovertible" that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 American election and is already trying to do so this year, a fact Trump tries to pretend doesn't exist.

A National Security Advisor is arguably the second most important senior West Wing staff member, second only to the Chief of Staff. Considering Trump had utterly zero qualifications in the defense, foreign relations, and terrorism arenas, his National Security Advisor is all the more important.

Based on a number of published reports drawn from numerous sources inside the West Wing, Trump has largely all but ignored McMaster and only meets with him infrequently for short sessions. The President wants complex matters dilluted down to a few bullet points, a process that is virtually impossible and leaves him with a near complete lack of understanding of security and intelligence essentials.

McMaster was widely consider a voice of reason and sanity when he was first appointed. But now that he has been administratively neutered and is all but out the door, one has to wonder who Trump is listening to for intelligence and foreign policy advice.

If he's listening to anyone at all.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous03:24

    Asunto muy serio,Amigo venezolano,Cucuta

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG! Again these never ending news about the «45»'s lack of intelligence awareness (not mentioning his own mental intelligence...) is constantly jeopardising USA's safety and in extend the whole world security.

    His way to handle foreign politics is so scary each time he tweets or opens his insane mouth.

    This clown thinks he's a king and that he can do anything without any consequences.
    THAT is very scary and dangerous.

    ReplyDelete

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