Reuters, Washington :
US President Donald Trump has shown little patience for dissent, but that trait is likely to be tested by his new national security adviser, Army Lieutenant General HR McMaster.
McMaster is joining the White House staff with views on Russia, counterterrorism, strengthening the military and other major security issues that diverge not only from those of the Trump loyalists, but also from those the president himself has expressed.
A military intellectual whose ideas have been shaped more by experience than by emotion, more by practice than by politics, and more by intellect than by impulse may also find himself in political terrain that may be as alien, and perhaps as hostile, to him as the sands and cities of Afghanistan and Iraq were.
McMaster will not be alone, however. His prominent administration allies include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis; Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; as well as many of the soldiers who have served with him.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that Trump told McMaster “he’s got full authority to structure the national security team the way he wants.”
Trump, however, already has taken the unusual step of adding Steve Bannon, his chief strategic adviser known for right-wing ideological views, to the White House National Security Council.
“The real potential for flashpoints is with some of the people that Steve Bannon has brought into the administration… people who see things very ideologically,” said Andrew Exum, a former Army officer and Defense Department Mideast policy official and McMaster friend for more than a decade.
Trump’s early missteps on immigration and other issues “have strengthened the leverage available to not only HR McMaster, but also Defense Secretary Mattis and Secretary (of State Rex) Tillerson potentially,” Exum said.
One of the first tests of McMaster’s influence will be the administration’s review of US policy in Syria, and more broadly against Islamic militancy. The review’s results are due early next week, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.
Bannon said last June that the United States and its European allies are fighting a “global existential war” against Islam.
US President Donald Trump has shown little patience for dissent, but that trait is likely to be tested by his new national security adviser, Army Lieutenant General HR McMaster.
McMaster is joining the White House staff with views on Russia, counterterrorism, strengthening the military and other major security issues that diverge not only from those of the Trump loyalists, but also from those the president himself has expressed.
A military intellectual whose ideas have been shaped more by experience than by emotion, more by practice than by politics, and more by intellect than by impulse may also find himself in political terrain that may be as alien, and perhaps as hostile, to him as the sands and cities of Afghanistan and Iraq were.
McMaster will not be alone, however. His prominent administration allies include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis; Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; as well as many of the soldiers who have served with him.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that Trump told McMaster “he’s got full authority to structure the national security team the way he wants.”
Trump, however, already has taken the unusual step of adding Steve Bannon, his chief strategic adviser known for right-wing ideological views, to the White House National Security Council.
“The real potential for flashpoints is with some of the people that Steve Bannon has brought into the administration… people who see things very ideologically,” said Andrew Exum, a former Army officer and Defense Department Mideast policy official and McMaster friend for more than a decade.
Trump’s early missteps on immigration and other issues “have strengthened the leverage available to not only HR McMaster, but also Defense Secretary Mattis and Secretary (of State Rex) Tillerson potentially,” Exum said.
One of the first tests of McMaster’s influence will be the administration’s review of US policy in Syria, and more broadly against Islamic militancy. The review’s results are due early next week, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.
Bannon said last June that the United States and its European allies are fighting a “global existential war” against Islam.
