Deputy national security adviser ready to leave

Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell will leave the Trump administration early next year, the White House announced Friday, in the first of what is expected to be a round of departures in the new year.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement that Powell had always planned to serve for a year before returning home to New York. She’s expected to continue working with the administration on Middle East policy issues from outside the White House, Sanders said.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in a statement called Powell an “invaluable member” of the president’s team and praised her as one of “the most talented and effective leaders with whom I have ever served.”

Powell was originally hired to work on economic development at the behest of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. But the Egyptian-American with international experience and fluency in Arabic was soon moved to the National Security Council.

Powell’s foreign policy experience was forged under Condoleezza Rice, who brought her into the State Department when the George W. Bush’s administration was trying to improve Middle East diplomacy.

Born in Cairo, Powell moved to the United States with her family at the age of four and had to learn to speak English. Entering Republican politics at a young age, Powell put herself through the University of Texas by working in the state Legislature.

After stints with several GOP congressional members and at the Republican National Committee, she joined the Bush administration. She later served Rice as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs and as deputy undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.