Security adviser picked as envoy

Former Flynn deputy’s move follows council reshuffle

PALM BEACH, Fla. — A top national security adviser to President Donald Trump is in line to be the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, according to officials briefed on the matter.

K.T. McFarland came into the White House as a deputy to Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn was asked to resign in February after revelations that he misled senior administration officials about his contacts with Russian government officials.

Administration officials briefed on the matter confirmed that McFarland was stepping down from the National Security Council but said her departure would not be immediate and that she was expected to be at work today. The officials also said her possible nomination for the ambassadorship to Singapore had not been finalized. The administration is still awaiting approval from Singapore, and the post requires Senate confirmation.

Flynn’s replacement, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, has freely made changes to the national security structure since assuming the role on the National Security Council. McMaster expressed a desire to run a less hierarchical organization and be more accessible to his staff.

Another White House official, Dina Powell, was recently named deputy national security adviser for strategy and has been present in the recent high-level meetings with delegations from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and China. Powell joined the White House to work with Trump’s daughter Ivanka on women’s empowerment issues. She had previously served as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs under President George W. Bush before joining Goldman Sachs.

But Powell soon began attending senior-level staff meetings with the president and was promoted to deputy national security adviser last month.

On Thursday, as the president huddled with top national security and Cabinet officials to trigger U.S. missile strikes on Syrian government installations, Powell was among the attendees. McFarland was not.

McFarland had worked as a Fox News analyst before joining Trump’s national security team. She previously worked as an aide in the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations, and she served as a Pentagon speechwriter and spokesman under President Ronald Reagan.

Officials said McFarland’s style had bothered some of the staff members on the National Security Council. While addressing the staff at a meeting after Flynn’s ouster, McFarland noted that she was wearing shoes from Ivanka Trump’s brand, according to an official who was present.

A number of staff members said McFarland invoked Trump’s campaign slogan during an all-hands meeting about two weeks into the new administration. The career staff members, who see themselves as apolitical civil servants and who held the same roles during former President Barack Obama’s administration, said McFarland told them they needed to “make America great again.”

McFarland defended her approach in a February interview, telling The New York Times, “Not only is this a new administration, but it is a different party, and Donald Trump was elected by people who wanted the status quo thrown out. I think it would be a mistake if we didn’t have consternation about the changes — most of the Cabinet haven’t even been in government before.”