ugc_banner

After Tillerson, Trump set to fire National Security Advisor McMaster: Report

WION Web Team
Washington, DC, USAUpdated: Mar 16, 2018, 01:48 AM IST
main img
File photo: US President Donald Trump. Photograph:(AFP)

Story highlights

As Tillerson was sacked, rumours swirled McMaster was next in line to be sacked.

After Rex Tillerson's unceremonious firing, President Trump is set to remove US National Security Adviser McMaster from his post, the Washinton Post reported today.

The report comes just days after the ex-US secretary of state Tillerson was dumped by Trump in a Twitter message which rattled the administration and took even critics by surprise.

As Tillerson was sacked, rumours swirled McMaster was next in line to be sacked as Trump moves to surround his cabinet with people who are in tune with his campaign promise made during the 2016 presidential run.

The Washington Post report said that Trump is "now comfortable" with removing McMaster from the post but "is willing to take time executing the move" in order to save McMaster from humiliation and choose a replacement.

To this day, I think that a healthy ideological diversity prevails in the White House, but what has changed is that he is no longer willing to allow people to slow roll or stonewall his agenda," said Andrew Surabian a former White House strategist under Trump to Reuters.

As Trump formally announced global tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium his top economic adviser Gary Cohn, who disagreed with him resigned, Tillerson followed days later, sacked by Trump even as he was touring abroad.

US television commentator and conservative economic analyst Larry Kudlow was named as Cohn's replacement even as he decided to name Gina Haspel as CIA chief.

"He is looking for people who are in broad agreement with what he wants to do and who are willing to accept that he's the team leader," said Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.