Mid-East adviser to bail on Don

ONE OF PRESIDENT Trump’s key advisers on Middle Eastern policy will leave the administration early next year, the White House announced Friday — just two days after Trump’s contentious decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that deputy national security adviser Dina Powell had always planned on leaving her White House post after a year to return home to her family in New York. Sanders added that Powell will continue to advise the administration on policy issues from the outside.

But the timing of her exit raises questions over how some in the administration feel about Trump’s Jerusalem decision.

The decision Wednesday stoked international outrage, as it declares Jerusalem Israel’s de facto capital. Officials on both sides of the aisle fear that the decision will set off renewed fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, who have long sought East Jerusalem as their own capital.

Powell, who served in the George W. Bush administration, has been blasted as a “globalist” by Trump’s nationalist wing of supporters.

Her exit is the first in what is reportedly a series of departures slated for next year. Secretary of State Tillerson, whose relationship with Trump has soured over the past few months, is widely considered among those expected to resign.