Trump Names 5 Candidates for National Security Adviser
PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. — President Trump on Tuesday named five candidates he was considering for national security adviser as he sought to replace John R. Bolton while juggling multiple international conflicts with a hollowed-out staff.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to California for fund-raisers, the president identified five current or former members of his administration, including a couple of generals and a hostage negotiator whom he has grown fond of. His press secretary later amended Mr. Trump’s comments to note that other, unnamed candidates remained in the mix.
Whoever is Mr. Bolton’s successor will inherit a dangerous and complex showdown between Iran and the United States that has drawn in Saudi Arabia and threatens global energy supplies. Mr. Trump is also trying to strike a bargain with North Korea, resolve a trade war with China and withdraw from Afghanistan after recently ending peace talks with the Taliban.
That person will also assume control of a National Security Council staff that has traditionally been packed with specialized experts but has seen many departures and diminished expertise and experience. Mr. Bolton forced out numerous officials, and now a number of his appointees have left or are soon expected to.
“There is huge turnover and a thin staff,” said Barbara Leaf, a former Obama administration ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. “Bolton took a wrecking ball to his own organization.”
The candidates Mr. Trump mentioned as the next national security adviser included Robert C. O’Brien, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs who has brokered the release of high-profile detainees around the world, and Maj. Gen. Ricky L. Waddell, the principal military adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former deputy national security adviser to Mr. Trump.
The president also listed Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, the under secretary of energy for nuclear security; Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff to Mr. Bolton at the National Security Council; and Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a retired officer who has advised Mr. Trump since the 2016 campaign and now serves as the national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.
Mr. Trump said last week that he would announce his choice before traveling to New York for next week’s United Nations General Assembly, an annual gathering of world leaders at which American presidents typically rely heavily on their staff for guidance through a marathon stretch of diplomatic interactions.
In naming the five, Mr. Trump seemed to be ruling out several others who had been considered or proposed to him, including two top aides to Mr. Pompeo — Stephen E. Biegun, the special envoy for North Korea, and Brian H. Hook, the special envoy for Iran. Another who had been mentioned but was not included on the president’s list was Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany.
But with Mr. Trump, a list of finalists is sometimes only a starting point, and he has been known to consider other candidates as names are floated to him or he happens to spot potential advisers on television. Some on the list he provided on Tuesday may be on there only to stroke egos or throw off those trying to divine his thinking.
Soon after Mr. Trump’s comments to reporters, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, clarified that the five names were “not the full list, and there are others being considered.”
None of the people Mr. Trump named are considered strong ideologues — with the exception of Mr. Fleitz, a hawk in the mold of Mr. Bolton, his former boss. But Mr. Trump has passed over Mr. Fleitz before, declining to install him as director of national intelligence to replace the departed Dan Coats, and is not expected to tap him this time.
Ms. Gordon-Hagerty, a highly regarded veteran of nuclear security policy, was suggested to Mr. Trump by his daughter Ivanka after he asked for female candidates, but is seen at the White House as another long shot.
Whomever Mr. Trump eventually picks would be his fourth national security adviser in less than three years in office, more than any other president has had in a first term. He fired his first, Michael T. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, after only 24 days for misleading Mr. Pence and others about his interactions with Russia’s ambassador. He pushed out his second, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, after the relationship soured.
Mr. Bolton left last week amid deep disagreements on how to handle issues like Iran, North Korea, Russia and Afghanistan. The two could not even agree on the circumstances of his departure. Mr. Trump announced that he had fired him, but Mr. Bolton insisted he offered his resignation without being asked.
For now, the National Security Council is being run by Mr. Bolton’s onetime deputy, Charles M. Kupperman, a former defense industry executive who served in the Reagan administration. The council’s senior director for the Middle East, Victoria Coates, remains in her job.
Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, said he was pleasantly surprised by how Trump had responded to the presumed Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia. Mr. Dubowitz, who speaks regularly with Trump officials, said the White House had convened senior level meetings at which a range of policy options had been debated.
Mr. Dubowitz noted that after an initial tweet on Sunday in which Mr. Trump said the United States was “locked and loaded” for potential military action, the president had seemed to choose his words more carefully. On Monday, Mr. Trump declined to confirm publicly that Iran was behind the attack and would not commit to retaliation, while also holding open the prospect of diplomacy with Tehran.
“In general he is being very cautious about signaling intentions, and taking a more measured approach that was very un-Trumpian,” Mr. Dubowitz said.
Others stressed the importance of installing a competent and impartial manager at the National Security Council at a moment when Mr. Trump finds himself on the precipice of military conflict in the Middle East. Mr. Bolton largely dispensed with the traditional national security process, in which issues are extensively deliberated, and tended to be more of a policy advocate than an arbiter of options.
Michael Doran, a former national security official in the George W. Bush White House, said an ideal national security adviser should act as an “honest broker” who is well informed and process oriented, and who gets along personally with the president.
“You have to be both selfless yet committed, very knowledgeable but not too tied to your own ideas. Hard to find that person in any administration,” Mr. Doran said.
“This is a national security issue of such extraordinary complexity and moment,” added Ms. Leaf, now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is not something where you can wing it. He needs his senior people fully informed by events and options and then a referee to lay it out for him.”
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