MCMASTER/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Even before he took the job last winter as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster had a target on his back.
He stepped into the role with lukewarm support from the president and outright resistance from high-ranking Trump loyalists who saw in Gen. McMaster the embodiment of the Washington status quo they were trying to upend… But that, in turn, has put Gen. McMaster at odds with other members of the national-security team, especially Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who have pushed for more measured approaches in policy debates, according to current and former Trump administration officials.
Now, Gen. McMaster is working with strained alliances both inside and outside the White House that have restricted his ability to craft national-security strategy in the Trump White House, the current and former officials said.
Hobbled in his ability to translate Mr. Trump’s sometimes-unorthodox ideas into concepts acceptable to more cautious members of the national-security team, Gen. McMaster has been thrust into a precarious position, with persistent speculation he will be pushed out of his post as soon as the Pentagon finds a suitable new job for him or the White House settles on someone to take his place.”
-Dion Nissenbaum and Gordon Lubold, “Undermined and Beleaguered, H.R. McMaster Soldiers On,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 4, 2018 06:36pm