Free Republic

On Friday, a source told Fox News that a National Security Council (NSC) staffer had spoken about Trump’s July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “multiple” people outside of the NSC, and had characterized the call as “outrageous.” This occurred before the whistleblower’s complaint had been submitted. This development had been reported to then-senior National Security Council (NSC) leadership. According to Fox: The development comes as Fiona Hill, a former special assistant to the president who worked on European and Russian affairs, is set to give a deposition next week. Fox News has reached out to Hill...

Israel was seriously dismayed when first reports reached Jerusalem about the telephone conversation between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Tuesday, during which Trump agreed to consider Putin’s plan for “de-escalation zones” in Syria, in place of the American security zones proposal. The Russian president’s plan includes the posting of Iranian military officers as co-monitors for those zones, one of which is to be located on the Syrian-Israeli border. President Trump described the conversation as “Very good.” The four “de-escalation zones” proposed would be situated at: 1. The northwestern province of Idlib up to the Turkish border; 2. The central...

President Trump would destabilize his reelection coalition if he attacks Iran or Venezuela, supporters and outside observers say, as key administration officials threaten war. Trump is nearly alone inside the West Wing as the voice for military restraint following a phase-out of grassroots backers, five former White House aides say, leaving the often mercurial president with advisers pushing in one direction. Wars often rally the public around a president, but a Trump-led intervention might hurt him.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to carry out orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options in various attempts to prevent tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria from escalating, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest account of Trump’s own officials trying to check his worst instincts. "The president thinks out loud. Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation," a former senior national security official told The New Yorker. "We prevented a lot of bad things from...

MANY PEOPLE who viewed Donald Trump as unprepared and temperamentally ill-suited to be president initially reassured themselves that a sober-minded Republican majority in Congress would restrain him. Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s (R-Wis.) pitiable farewell this week spotlighted the emptiness of those hopes. Mr. Ryan allowed the president and his allies to corrupt the House Intelligence Committee and treat federal law enforcement as an enemy. Like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and most other ostensible GOP leaders, Mr. Ryan abetted the president as he sought, fruitlessly, to use fear and bigotry to preserve the House Republican majority in the 2018...

President Trump reportedly wanted to immediately and publicly acknowledge that U.S.-led forces engaged Russian mercenaries in Syria earlier this year, killing hundreds of them, but senior National Security Council staff, led then by H.R. McMaster, intervened, saying it would be unnecessarily antagonizing to Moscow. The president is said to have wanted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to immediately acknowledged and “take credit” for fending off the Russian mercenaries.

<p>Law enforcement and Pennsylvania Health Department officials are investigating the death of H.R. McMaster Sr., the father of President Donald Trump's former national security advisor, at a Philadelphia senior care facility.</p> <p>The 84-year-old McMaster, a retired U.S. Army officer, died April 13 at Cathedral Village continuing care retirement facility. Local police and Pennsylvania Attorney General's office investigators are looking into it as a suspicious death. The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office says McMaster died of "blunt impact head trauma."</p>

Nearly a week since U.S. President Donald Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul advised against appointing former U.N. Ambassador and White House Chief of Staff John Bolton. Trump’s first choice, retired Navy special forces officer Robert Harward, who served under Defense Secretary John Mattis, turned down the position last week and reports say the White House has ruled out former CIA Director David Petraeus, who was ousted as the nation’s top spy amid a scandal over his sharing confidential documents with his mistress. Flynn resigned last week amid questions on whether he discussed sanctions with...

President Trump’s new national security advisor is reportedly planning major staffing changes at the National Security Council. Sources close to the situation told Foreign Policy that John Bolton is preparing to “clean house” and remove nearly all of the political appointees brought in by his predecessor. “Bolton can and will clean house,” one former White House official told Foreign Policy. Another former official said that any National Security Council officials appointed under former President Obama “should start packing their shit.” Foreign Policy reported that Bolton is planning to remove dozens of current officials, with a focus on those who have...

John Bolton is expected to "launch a massive shake-up" when he takes over next month at the National Security Council to clear out leaks, Foreign Policy magazine reported Friday. "Bolton can and will clean house," one former White House official told the magazine. A second former White House official was more blunt: "Everyone who was there during Obama years should start packing their s**t." And another source said that Bolton "is going to remove almost all the political [appointees] McMaster brought in." President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that Bolton, 69, the former United Nations ambassador, would succeed National Security Adviser...

You may have heard: President Donald Trump replaced his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, with John Bolton. You may have heard because of the mixed reaction to the prospect of Bolton running national security — “mixed” as in apocalyptic among leftists and heaven-sent to many on the right. Look no further than the pro-Israel spectrum for each extremes: “We are horrified by his selection to be national security adviser and believe this move by the president gravely imperils our country’s national standing and the fundamental security of the United States and its allies, including Israel,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president...

President Trump announced on Thursday that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster will resign in April. Schiff panicked after Trump announced John Bolton will be replacing McMaster as his National Security Advisor. Just like Trump’s new lawyer, Joe DiGenova, John Bolton believes Obama’s FBI conspired to frame Trump. Schiff tweeted: John Bolton once suggested Russian hack of DNC may have been a false flag operation by Obama Admin. He joins Joe diGenova, another Fox contributor, who thinks the FBI conspired to frame the President.

President Trump has decided to remove H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser and is actively discussing potential replacements, according to five people with knowledge of the plans, preparing to deliver yet another jolt to the senior ranks of his administration. Trump is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled, but is willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up, these people said. The turbulence is part of a broader potential shake-up under consideration...

Donald Trump has sacked his national security advisor H.R. McMaster just days after ousting his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, as his purge of White House staff continues, it has been reported. Five people with knowledge of the plan have stated that Mr Trump is eyeing up several replacements for Mr McMaster that include former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton and the Chief of Staff for the National Security Council, Keith Kellogg. The dismissal of Mr McMaster has not been officially confirmed.

NEW YORK — Amid widespread reports that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster is expected to lose his job within days, it is instructive to recall the troubling ideology and concerning connections of the man who has been serving in one of the most powerful U.S. national security positions. Below, in no particular order, are six Breitbart News exposes authored by this reporter that unearthed McMaster’s disturbing ties and ideology. 1 – McMaster repeatedly minimized the religious motivations of Islamic terrorist groups. 2 – McMaster endorsed a book that advocates Quran-kissing apology ceremonies, and frames jihad as largely peaceful. 3 –...

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster triggered a "flurry" among reporters when he was spotted on the White House grounds Friday afternoon, amid reporting that his departure is only a matter of time. McMaster appeared twice outside the West Wing, resulting in a rush of reporters out of the adjacent White House briefing room. A pool report described the scene as a “press corps fire drill.” "Everybody has got to leave the White House at some point,” McMaster told Tara Palmeri of ABC News, who tweeted his remarks after the first sighting.

Near-daily gossip surrounds Donald Trump's three marquee generals. The media sometimes blare out rumors that Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, is proving to be a loose cannon and might soon be fired. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, is occasionally rumored to be a robotic PowerPoint wonk and hawkish interventionist who soon might be terminated. Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis is purportedly too much the centrist Democrat, and embarrassed by Trump's antics, and thus might be leaving. Of course, few Cabinet or White House appointees ever serve throughout an entire administration. Burnout...

Longstanding friction between U.S. President Donald Trump and two top aides, the National Security Advisor and the Chief of Staff, has grown to a point that either or both might quit soon, four senior administration officials said. Both H.R. McMaster and John Kelly are military men considered by U.S. political observers as moderating influences on the president by imposing a routine on the White House. They have also convinced Trump of the importance of international alliances, particularly NATO, which he has criticized as not equally sharing its burdens with the United States. However, all the officials were quick to add...

U.S. lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — and top national security officials in the Trump administration offered the same advice publicly and privately, often clashing with Trump’s Twitter stream: the United States remains staunchly committed to its European allies, is furious with the Kremlin about election interference and isn’t contemplating a preemptive strike on North Korea to halt its nuclear program. But Trump himself engaged in a running counterpoint to the message, taking aim on social media at his own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, because he “forgot” on Saturday to tell the Munich Security Conference that the results...

President Trump broke with his national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Saturday after McMaster said that indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation show “incontrovertible” evidence of Russia's election meddling. "General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" Trump tweeted. Trump's comments come after McMaster, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, said “with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible”...