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Trump To Fire McMaster As National Security Adviser - WaPo; White House Denies
15
March, 2018
Just spoke to @POTUS and Gen. H.R. McMaster - contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the NSC.
...for
now?
*
* *
Confirming
the "purge rumblings" reported
earlier, moments
ago the Washington
Post reported that
President Trump has decided to fire H.R. McMaster as his national
security adviser, delivering the latest jolt to the senior ranks
of his administration.
As the WaPo adds, while "Trump is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled," he is taking the time to execute the move because "he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up, these people said."
As The Independent previously reported, John Bolton is the pro-war, former United Nations ambassador under George W Bush (and was on the shortlist to become Secretary of State).
Alex Jones purports to have the backstory
This latest termination from Trump's administration makes it 25 departures in Trump's first 419 days, or on average one every 17 days.
As the WaPo adds, while "Trump is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled," he is taking the time to execute the move because "he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up, these people said."
The decision is the latest sign that Trump is wresting back control of his personnel and policy decisions after a string of victories - on tax reform, banking regulations and tariffs - has left him feeling emboldened.
For all of the evident disorder, Trump feels emboldened, advisers said — buoyed by what he views as triumphant decisions last week to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum and to agree to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The president is enjoying the process of assessing his team and making changes, tightening his inner circle to those he considers survivors and who respect his unconventional style, one senior White House official said.
Just days ago, Trump used Twitter to fire Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state whom he disliked, and moved to install his close ally, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in the job. On Wednesday, he named conservative TV analyst Larry Kudlow to replace his top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, who quit over trade disagreements.
McMaster has long been detested by Trump's nationalist supporters (including, perhaps most notably, the editors of Breitbart.com). Most of this animosity is tied to McMaster's refusal to adopt the president's line regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Several candidates have emerged to become Trump's third National Security Advisor since his inauguration. The group of candidates includes John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, and Keith Kellogg, the chief of staff of the National Security Council.
As The Independent previously reported, John Bolton is the pro-war, former United Nations ambassador under George W Bush (and was on the shortlist to become Secretary of State).
The anti-Iran and anti-Russia hawk failed to secure a longer term as UN ambassador after Democrats banded together to prevent him.
He served less than two years, during which there was a rise in anti-US sentiment around the world.
In a recent blog, Mr Bolton named the five "gravest" threats to US security abroad: Isis, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China.
President Trump said in 2016 that Mr Bolton was one of his go-to experts on foreign security, and described him as a "tough cookie".
But selecting Mr Bolton for the top job would break Mr Trump’s pledge to work peacefully with other countries, and would cast doubt over his hopes for a positive relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Bolton told Fox News: "I think we’ve got to begin to treat Russia like the adversary that Putin is currently demonstrating it to be."
This year, Mr Bolton vocally opposed any attempts to "legitimise" Russia’s efforts to defeat Isis in Syria, contrary to Mr Trump who proposed Russia and Syria should be left alone to "fight it out".
Joseph “Keith” Kellogg, a former contracting executive, took over when Mike Flynn was fired/resigned...
Kellogg, 72, was born in Ohio and served 36 years in the military: in the army in Vietnam, as a special forces officer in Cambodia, and during the first Iraq war as chief of staff for the 82nd Airborne Division. Kellogg rose to command the airborne division from 1997 to 1998 and later came to national prominence when he served as chief operating officer for Baghdad’s provisional government through 2004 – a year of mistakes by the transitional administration that haunted Iraq through the next decade of war.
He played a critical role in the disastrous US occupation of Iraq as the director of operations of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran the country after the 2003 invasion.
After his retirement, Kellogg joined a series of contracting firms including tech giant Oracle – the company gave him a leave of absence to help the Bush administration in Iraq. “I was given the opportunity to establish a homeland security business unit at Oracle,” he told the Washington Post in 2005, “based on the skills I developed in the military and on the value that information technology can bring to homeland security.”
Kellogg later joined another tech contractor, CACI, in 2005, and then left for a defense contractor, Cubic Defense, in 2009, where he was responsible for the firm’s “ground combat training business”.
Kellogg travels with Trump on many domestic trips, in part because the president "likes his company and thinks he's fun." Bolton has met with Trump several times and often agrees with the president’s instincts. Trump also thinks Bolton, who regularly praises the president on Fox News Channel, is good on television.
For now, the market is not taking the uncertainty well - Stocks and USDJPY are down, and gold is up on the headlines...
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As Breitbart reminds us, the final straw for McMaster allegedly came earlier this month as his relationship with the executive branch's other two generals: Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Reports earlier this week suggested that McMaster's relationship with the two men had soured over policy disputes.
Alex Jones purports to have the backstory
March Massacre for the White House tomorrow; Heads to Roll
15
March, 2018
“Many staffers were told not to come to work tomorrow, the President is still finalizing the full list of people who are out.”
The press will try to spin this as a president in scandal and under fire, but this is really the president continuing to streamline his administration with the best individuals for the job, hopefully with this shake-up the administration furthers its ability to push forward their agenda as efficiently and robustly as possible.
Among senior officials whose jobs are allegedly on the chopping block is chief of staff John Kelly and Veterans Administration Secretary Shulkin.
I am told these drastic changes will put power back directly into the hands of the president:
“Trump wants to take back control of his administration. That means more allies come in for the first time. He’s looking for plan "B's" on people who don’t get fired, but there may not be any plan "b" for a lot of people."
The President has kept extremely detailed personal records of events, and of ADVICE he has gotten. Over the past month or so, he made assessments about what ended-up being accurate versus who was blowing sunshine up his ass, especially as it relates to ongoing US military activities in Syria.
It seems the President is extremely unhappy with the nation being led blissfully unaware down the path toward World War 3, and feels he must take immediate and decisive action to put an end to certain schools of thought within the White House and within various agencies, that are proving to NOT be in the interests of America.
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