Trump taps another general as security adviser
McMaster runs group that tries to foresee military challenges
President Trump named Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who headed up a unit focused on future military challenges, as his new national security adviser Monday. McMaster replaces retired general Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign for misleading Vice President Pence.
“You’re going to do a great job,” Trump told McMaster as he made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trump announced that retired Army three-star general Keith Kellogg — who had been the acting national security in the week since Flynn was fired — would be McMaster’s chief of staff.
Kellogg thanked Trump and said it would be an honor to serve with McMaster.
McMaster, described by Trump as “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience,” is the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, an internal think tank that looks at future threats and how to deal with them.
Thanking Trump for the appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, McMaster said, “I would just like to say what a privilege it is to be able to continue serving our nation. I’m grateful to you for that opportunity, and I look forward to joining the national security team and doing everything that I can to advance and protect the interests of the American people.”
McMaster is a protégé of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and an author.
His 1997 book on the Vietnam
War — Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the
Lies That Led to Vietnam — has been required reading for many national security officials.
McMaster has called for a larger, better-equipped Army to face growing threats to national security.
The Army, until plans were announced recently to grow the ranks, has been shedding soldiers.
The new national security adviser warned the Senate that the Army shrank its ranks too far and lacked the weaponry it needed to keep pace with U.S. enemies. It has been “outranged and outgunned by many potential adversaries,” he told a panel of the Armed Services Committee in April.
Advanced weapons mean the Army’s main armored vehicles, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Abrams tank, “will soon be obsolete,” he said.
The Army has no plans to replace either vehicle.
In announcing the McMaster appointment, Trump suggested that another finalist for the national security adviser’s job, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, would be hired for a different position.
“We’ll be asking him to work with us in a somewhat different capacity,” Trump said of Bolton. “Knows a lot. He had a good number of ideas that I must tell you I agree very much with.”
The moves came a week after Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation for lying about the substance of a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
McMaster takes over a National Security Council that has many unfilled jobs and a reputation for chaotic management.
The president initially offered the job to retired Navy vice admiral Robert Harward, but he turned it down late last week.
White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said that in naming his new national security adviser, Trump “gave full authority for McMaster to hire whatever staff he sees fit.”
After a weekend of job interviews, Trump said of McMaster, “He is highly respected by everyone in the military, and we’re very honored to have him.”