Trump removes Bannon from Security Council
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has removed chief strategist Steve Bannon from the National Security Council, reversing an earlier, controversial decision to give Bannon access to the group’s high-level meetings.
A new memorandum about the council’s composition was published Wednesday in the Federal Register. The memo no longer lists the chief strategist as a member of the Principals Committee, a group of high-ranking officials who meet to discuss pressing national security priorities.
A senior White House official said Wednesday that Bannon was initially placed on the National Security Council after Trump’s inauguration as a measure to ensure implementation of the president’s vision, including efforts to downsize and streamline operations at the NSC.
Bannon’s addition to the NSC sparked criticism that it was inappropriate for the political adviser to play a role in national security matters.
Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was heading the NSC at the time, but the official said Bannon’s role had nothing to do with the troubles facing Flynn, who was asked to resign in early February for misleading the administration about his communications with Russian officials.
A senior administration official said Flynn reluctantly agreed to have Bannon join the NSC. The official said Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and chief counsel, Don McGahn, rewrote the original NSC memo with Flynn to include Bannon.
The official said the move reflected Trump’s dwindling faith in his national security adviser and that Flynn’s daily presentations to the president were seen as disorganized and not up to par.
Flynn’s replacement, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, was allowed to reorganize the NSC as he saw fit. McMaster immediately expressed a desire to run a less hierarchical organization and be more accessible to his staff. Lack of access to Flynn when he was in charge created widespread frustration, according to current and former administration officials familiar with the changes.
Tom Bossert, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, also had his role downgraded as part of the changes. The White House official said Bossert’s change in status is simply a result of efforts to streamline the NSC. Bossert joined Trump’s team having previously served as deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.