HR McMaster has resigned as Donald Trump’s national security adviser and will be replaced by John Bolton, the hawkish former US ambassador to the United Nations, the president announced on Thursday night.
Bolton has advocated using military force against Iran and North Korea and has taken a hard line against Russia.
Trump announced the switch in a tweet, writing that he was “thankful for the service of General HR McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will remain my friend”.
The changing of the guard will take place on 9 April, Trump said.
An official said that there were no incidents that led to McMaster’s exit, and that it was instead the result of a continuing conversation between McMaster and the president.
In a statement, McMaster, 55, said he would be retiring from the US army at the same time as leaving the White House. He thanked Trump and the members of the National Security Council, who he said had “worked together to provide the president with the best options to protect and advance our national interests”.
His replacement, Bolton, 69, who has long been a polarizing figure in Washington foreign policy circles, becomes Trump’s third national security adviser in 14 months.
The departure of McMaster had been on the cards for some weeks amid ructions with the president. The pair have clashed several times over policy issues such as Afghanistan and Iran.
McMaster’s exit marks the climax of an extraordinarily shaky period in the leadership of US foreign policy.
Last week Trump fired Rex Tillerson as US secretary of state, placing the CIA director Mike Pompeo into the role of the nation’s top diplomat.
The official line from the White House about McMaster’s departure was that there was a need for a new foreign policy team to be put in place before Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, which is planned for spring.
But McMaster’s departure was also announced just two days after the president was reportedly infuriated by a leak of intimate briefing documents relating to his conversation with the Vladimir Putin, in which he congratulated Putin upon his re-election as Russian president against the advice of aides.
The White House has denied that McMaster’s departure had anything to do with the leak.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
