Outspoken Gen is Trump’s NSA

Florida, February 21

President Donald Trump has named Lieutenant General Herbert Raymond McMaster as his new national security adviser, choosing a military officer known for speaking his mind and challenging his superiors.

McMaster is a highly regarded military tactician and strategic thinker, but his selection surprised some observers who wondered how the officer, whose army career stalled at times for his questioning of authority, would deal with a White House that has not welcomed criticism.

“He is highly respected by everybody in the military and we’re very honoured to have him,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach where he spent the weekend. “He’s a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”

One subject on which Trump and McMaster could soon differ is Russia. McMaster shares the consensus view among the US national security establishment that Russia is a threat and an antagonist to the United States, while the man whom McMaster is replacing, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, appeared to view it more as a potential geopolitical partner.

Trump in the past has expressed a willingness to engage with Russia more than his predecessor, Barack Obama. Flynn was fired as NSA on February 13 after reports emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about speaking to Russia’s ambassador to the US on US sanctions before Trump’s inauguration.

The ouster, coming so early, was another upset for the White House that has been hit by miscues, including a travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations, since Trump took office on January 20. — Reuters

Military tactician

• Lieutenant General HR McMaster, 54, is a decorated military official, having served in command positions during the Gulf War in the early 1990s and with the Central Command during the Iraq war in the early 2000s
• He is a West Point graduate known as “HR”, with a PhD in US history from the University of North Carolina. He was listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014, partly because of his willingness to buck the system
• He is a highly regarded military tactician and strategic thinker. Time magazine said  he “might be the 21st Century Army's pre-eminent warrior-thinker”