White House Swears Everything Is Fine with H.R. McMaster, Thanks

Maya Kosoff
Updated
The three-star general may imminently be out of a job, though the White House insists he and Trump have a “good working relationship.”

The abrupt Twitter firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the controversial nomination of C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, and the appointment of perennially wrong TV pundit Larry Kudlow to fill in for Gary Cohn as National Economic Council director, are, by all indications, just the beginning of a massive, ongoing staff shake-up that has put the White House on edge and instilled a pervasive sense of paranoia among aides in the West Wing. As my colleague Gabe Sherman reported this week, Trump has been mulling ousting National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, meeting with ultra-hawkish former U.N. ambassador John Bolton as a potential replacement. And according to The Washington Post, McMaster’s removal is now imminent.

Per the Post, Trump has dedicated several meetings this week to speaking with candidates to fill McMaster’s position, including Bolton and Keith Kellogg, the chief of staff of the National Security Council. The White House, however, insists everything is fine between McMaster and Trump. “Just spoke to @POTUS and Gen. H.R. McMaster,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted late on Thursday night. “Contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the NSC.”

Behind the scenes, rumors have long percolated that Trump finds McMaster too rigid, with a machine-gun briefing style that does little to appeal to the taste of a man who prefers to get his news from Fox & Friends. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has reportedly told staffers recently that Trump’s mind is made up in regard to firing McMaster, though he’s willing to do it in a way that won’t humiliate the three-star general.

Two months into his second year as president, Trump has opted for a “clean reset” of those around him, acting on impulse to flush out what he perceives to be the wrong team. The Post reports an atmosphere of “mania” in the White House as it becomes unclear who will be next to be let go, particularly after the ouster of Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, this week. With little information, staffers are left to make their own bets about who’s next to find out they’ve been fired. “Everybody fears the perp walk,” one senior White House official said. “If it could happen to Johnny, the president’s body guy, it could happen to anybody.”