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National Security Adviser

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The force of newly-named National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s personality and notoriety as one of the US Army’s most celebrated leaders does not guarantee a stronger National Security Council under the Trump administration, former administration officials familiar with the job warned.
If he is ineffective, the administration will continue making national security decisions without the entity created to help protect the president through the process.
McMaster’s persona must be supplemented with access to the president, control over his staffing and the potential to have as much influence as long-time Trump supporters who already have the president’s ear, like Steve Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, they said. That is, he must manage those above him, below him and lateral to him within the administration, Douglas Ollivant, a senior fellow at New America Foundation who served on President George W. Bush’s and President Obama’s National Security Councils, said. …show more content…

Then he needs to manage the interagency” departments that he will manage as National Security Advisor, Ollivant said.
Not since Colin Powell became National Security Advisor in 1987 has the National Security Council been led by an active duty soldier, in this case a three-star Army general. Two of the people McMaster is supposed to manage are his military bosses – Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. And that could easily become

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