National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster faced a tsunami of criticism this week after firing pro-Trump officials. In addition, McMaster was blasted for his seemingly anti-Israel positions and granting embattled former Obama official, Susan Rice, continued top security clearance.
In a statement to the New York Times, President Trump defended McMaster using the same, vague and cryptic terms used to describe his feelings on Reince Priebus after he was fired. “He is a good man and very pro-Israel,” said President Trump. Priebus was called a ‘good man,’ as well.
New York Times reports:
President Trump defended Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, his embattled national security adviser, on Friday in the face of a full-bore campaign by the nationalist wing of his political coalition accusing him of undermining the president’s agenda and calling for his dismissal.
General McMaster has angered the political right by pushing out several conservatives on the national security staff and cautioning against ripping up the nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by President Barack Obamawithout a strategy for what comes next. His future has been in doubt amid speculation that Mr. Trump might send him to Afghanistan.
But after two days of unrelenting attacks on General McMaster by conservative activists and news sites, complete with the Twitter hashtag #FireMcMaster, the president weighed in to quash such talk. “General McMaster and I are working very well together,” he said in a statement emailed to The New York Times. “He is a good man and very pro–Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.”
Here is President Trump describing Priebus, much like he describes McMaster, as a “good man.”
Real Clear Politics reports:
President Trump gives a brief statement to the media about his decision to replace Chief of Staff Reince Priebus with Secretary of Homeland Security Ret. Gen. John Kelly. The president said Priebus was a “good man” and called Kelly a “great, great American.
Trump had just returned from New York and exited Air Force One.
“Mr. President, why Secretary Kelly? Why John Kelly?” a reporter asked Trump at Joint Base Andrews.
“Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job. General Kelly has been a star, done an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. A great, great American. Reince Priebus, a good man. Thank you very much,” Trump responded.
National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster took a beating this week from conservative media online following news of him purging Trump loyalists while praising Susan Rice and granting her access to classified information.
Rumors are swirling that President Trump is furious about McMaster’s decisions in his recent firings. Steve Bannon is reportedly also at odds with McMaster, causing a schism in the White House. It is a fight between the Trump loyalists and Deep State operatives still buzzing around attempting to unseat Trump.
TGP reported Thursday, McMaster might be shipped off to Afghanistan to oversee the war. The news also comes amid reports McMaster was caught leaking internal White House politics to now former Acting FBI Head Andy McCabe.
Fox News reports:
There are new questions about the future of National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, as President Donald Trump is reportedly growing more frustrated with the lack of progress in Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, two Army soldiers were killed in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province when their convoy was hit by an explosive device. On Thursday, a suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy near the town of Qarabagh, killing one and injuring several more.
On “The Story” tonight, Lt. Col. Michael Waltz (Ret.) said Trump is right to be frustrated with the lack of a comprehensive strategy in Afghanistan.
Despite that, Waltz cautioned against simply pulling U.S. soldiers out of the country, as Al Qaeda, ISIS and other groups would make gains in the wake of the Taliban.
Guest host Dana Perino asked if McMaster is on thin ice at the White House.
Waltz said there have long been factions in the Republican Party, with those who hold isolationist views and those who want to lead abroad, and that’s what this “tension” appears to be centered on.
As for rumors that Trump is considering shifting CIA Director Mike Pompeo to national security adviser and sending McMaster to command U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Waltz said McMaster would do a great job, but he wants to see him stay in his current position.
Circa News’ Sara Carter revealed President Trump is mulling another major White House shake-up, which would see National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
“Investigating: Rumors swirling in Wash circles and sources saying @realDonaldTrump “considering CIA Pompeo to replace HR” wait and see?”, tweeted Carter.
National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is leading the globalist purge of pro-Trump loyalists from the White House. After firing a number of ‘America First’ orientated officials, reports have surfaced that the motive behind firing Rich Higgins, Derek Harvey, and Ezra Cohen-Watnick may run deeper than just removing out Trump allies. A new report reveals McMaster may have purged the officials because they were also pro-Israel. McMaster is reportedly deeply hostile towards Israel and even banned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from accompanying President Trump to the Western Wall.
Breitbart News reports:
Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick wrote Wednesday evening that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is purging pro-Israel staff from the National Security Council (NSC), turning the administration against President Donald Trump’s policies.
In a Facebook post, Glick noted that “all of these people” whom McMaster has fired this week — Rich Higgins, Derek Harvey, and Ezra Cohen-Watnick — “are pro-Israel and oppose the Iran nuclear deal, positions that Trump holds.”
She noted that the firings were the latest evidence that NSA McMaster is “deeply hostile to Israel and to Trump”:
According to senior officials aware of his behavior, he constantly refers to Israel as the occupying power and insists falsely and constantly that a country named Palestine existed where Israel is located until 1948 when it was destroyed by the Jews.
Many of you will remember that a few days before Trump’s visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו and his advisers were blindsided when the Americans suddenly told them that no Israeli official was allowed to accompany Trump to the Western Wall.
What hasn’t been reported is that it was McMaster who pressured Trump to agree not to let Netanyahu accompany him to the Western Wall. At the time, I and other reporters were led to believe that this was the decision of rogue anti-Israel officers at the US consulate in Jerusalem. But it wasn’t. It was McMaster.
And even that, it works out wasn’t sufficient for McMaster. He pressured Trump to cancel his visit to the Wall and only visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial — ala the Islamists who insist that the only reason Israel exists is European guilt over the Holocaust.
When it comes to purging Trump loyalists from the White House, H.R. McMaster is only getting started. This week, The Gateway Pundit reported McMaster fired Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Rich Higgins, and is reportedly on a “warpath” to fire even more officials from the White House over the next two weeks.
Washington Free Beacon reports:
An ongoing staffing purge being conducted by White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has thrown the West Wing into chaos, according to more than half a dozen Trump administration insiders who told the Washington Free Beacon that McMaster has been targeting long-time Trump loyalists who were clashing with career government staffers and holdovers from the Obama administration.
The purge is part of a larger drama unfolding inside the administration, between veteran Trump staffers committed to the president’s campaign vision of “draining the swamp”‘ in Washington and entrenched bureaucracies seeking to maintain control over policy decision-making, according to these sources, who said that many of these actions against his supporters are being conducted without Trump’s knowledge.
The Trump staffers fired by McMaster had repeatedly clashed with career government staffers and holdovers from the Obama administration on issues as diverse as military strategies for Syria and Afghanistan, whether to tear up Obama’s landmark Iran deal, the controversial détente with Cuba, the U.S. role in confronting Islamic radicalism, and the Paris Climate Accord, according to these sources.
More purges are said to be on the way, according to multiple insiders who described a list of at least four other senior NSC officials McMaster intends to target. Other sources confirmed the likelihood of more purges, but disputed some details on that list.
“McMaster basically has this list and over the next two weeks he’s going to phase out” more senior officials loyal to Trump, said one administration insider intimately familiar with the upheaval occurring at the White House National Security Council. “They’re taking out people who were chosen to best implement the president’s policy that he articulated during the campaign.”
