Trump picks new national security adviser from L.A.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump named Robert C. O’Brien, the State Department’s special envoy for hostage affairs, as his fourth national security adviser Wednesday, but the White House struggled to offer a coherent response to Iran for its suspected role in the fiery attack on two major oil facilities in Saudi Arabia last weekend.
Trump’s announcement thrusts the little-known Los Angeles lawyer into a maelstrom of foreign policy challenges, none more pressing than the crisis with Iran, where the president has wavered between his desire to project toughness and his reluctance to risk a new Middle East war as he seeks reelection.
Introducing O’Brien to television cameras and reporters on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was traveling between fundraisers, Trump suggested he could still order military action but he did not repeat the bellicose threats that he has used in the past.
“If we have to do something, we’ll do it without hesitation,” he said, adding, “There’s plenty of time to do some dastardly things.”
Trump carefully avoided echoing more pointed comments from Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who described the attack on Saudi Arabia as an “act of war” while flying to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday.
Pompeo said he was “working to build out a coalition to develop a plan” to deter Iran.
Iran has denied responsibility for Saturday’s predawn attack, and assembling an international coalition against it could prove difficult. Trump angered some allies last year by pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which other major powers still support. No European government has publicly blamed Iran for the current crisis.
Trump said Wednesday that he instructed Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to “substantially increase” economic sanctions on Iran. It wasn’t clear if the new sanctions would be different from those now in place, which have squeezed Iran’s economy, and Trump offered no details of who or what would be targeted.
The uncertainty was a reminder that O’Brien will work for a mercurial president who already has pushed out three national security advisers and who often surprises his top staff, setting foreign policy priorities or abruptly issuing orders by tweet.
O’Brien will replace John Bolton, who was ousted last week. Appearing with Trump, O’Brien said he’s looking forward to working with the remaining foreign policy team.
“We’ve had tremendous foreign policy successes under President Trump’s leadership,” O’Brien said. “And I expect those to continue.”
Trump has come under pressure from hawkish Republicans who seek a more confrontational approach to Iran. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that Tehran may have seen Trump’s go-slow approach “as a sign of weakness,” a comment that spurred a backlash from the president.
“Ask Lindsey how did going into the Middle East, how did that work out?” Trump said. “And how did going into Iraq work out?”
Saudi officials have taken a cautious approach so far. Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, Col. Turki Maliki, a Saudi military spokesman, blamed Tehran for “an assault on the international community and an attempt to disrupt the global economy and the energy industry,” but he stopped short of saying Iran launched the strike.