MCMASTER OUT AS ADVISER; TRUMP TAPS JOHN BOLTON
John Bolton, a hard-line former U.S. ambassador to U.N., chosen for job.
WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation, will resign and be replaced by John Bolton, a hard-line former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, White House officials said Thursday.
McMaster will retire from the military, the officials said. He has been discussing his departure with Trump for several weeks, they said, but decided to speed up his departure, in part because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his conversations with foreign officials.
The officials also said that Trump wanted to fill out his national security team before his meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. He replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week.
Officials emphasized that McMaster’s departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with none of the recrimination that marked Tillerson’s exit. They said it was not related to a leak Tuesday of briefing materials for Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
In the materials, Trump was advised not to congratulate Putin on his re-election, which the president went ahead and did during the call.
Bolton, who will take office April 9, has met regularly with Trump to discuss foreign policy, and was on a list of candidates for national security adviser. He was in the West Wing with Trump to discuss the job Thursday.
“H.R. McMaster has served his country with distinction for more than 30 years. He has won many battles and his bravery and toughness are legendary,” Trump said in a statement. “General McMaster’s leadership of the National Security Council staff has helped my administration accomplish great things to bolster America’s national security.”
McMaster had struggled for months to impose order not only on a fractious national security team but on a president who resisted the sort of discipline customary in the military. Although McMaster has been a maverick voice at times during a long military career, the Washington foreign policy establishment had hoped he would keep the president from making rash decisions. Yet the president and the general, who had never met before Trump interviewed McMaster for the post, had little chemistry from the start, and often clashed behind the scenes.