In his memoir about his time in the Trump administration, Lt. Gen. HR McMaster says he told his wife he could not understand Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “influence” on President Trump.
The same book emphasizes that during the 13 months that McMaster led the government, the United States did much to adapt its global strategies to a changing world.
McMaster writes that he tried to help the president avoid mistakes such as responding embarrassingly to Putin’s flattery. But McMaster says he was not one of the officials around Trump who believed it was their job to protect the country from his erratic or dangerous moves.
McMaster is both a scientist and author of breach of duty, an acclaimed author of the history of U.S. military decision-making in the Vietnam War — and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I was a victim of policies and strategies developed in Washington that didn’t make sense to me in places like Baghdad or Kabul,” he said in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. When he was offered the top job at the NSC, he accepted it. “I saw it as an opportunity to help a transformative president transform a lot of what needed to be transformed in foreign policy and national security.”
That is at least part of the story he tells in his new book – At war with ourselves: My deployment in the White House under Trump.
The other part describes moments in which McMaster had to come to terms with the fact that Trump himself was being manipulated by advisers at home and dictators abroad.
On the occasion of the publication of his book 27.August He said he would not serve in a Trump administration again. “If President Trump is re-elected, of course I wish him all the best and success. If our next president is Kamala Harris, I wish her all the best and success,” he said on Morning edition“But I believe my opportunity to serve in the Trump administration has expired.”
However, he calls on others to serve and do their best.
In an excerpt from his book, McMaster writes about his collaboration with Trump: “I was the one who told him that Putin was using him and other politicians from both parties to undermine Americans’ faith in our democratic principles, institutions and processes. Putin was never and would never be Trump’s friend. I felt it was my duty to point that out.”
But Trump made his own judgments, often taking a contrary view.
“I think President Trump was driven by the same thinking that President Obama and President George W. Bush were at the beginning of their administrations under Putin,” McMaster said. “Putin is a big liar. He’s a big deceiver.” He offers every new president flattery and the prospect of global cooperation. “That’s why I brought it to the president’s attention. He often didn’t want to hear it.”
McMaster spoke of competing interests within Trump’s inner circle, ranging from the influence of White House adviser Steve Bannon to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who often ignored protocol and worked around McMaster’s National Security Council.
He characterized high-level jobs in the White House in one of three ways.
“The first category includes people who go into government to help the president-elect set his own agenda.” That’s how McMaster saw his role.
“The second group of people come into any White House or any administration to advance their own agenda. The third group of people are people who are motivated primarily by a desire to protect the country and perhaps the world from the president. And I think in the Trump administration, that second and third category of people were pretty large.”
One of the dysfunctional moments McMaster describes in his book involves remarks Trump made at NATO headquarters in Belgium in May 2017. Like his predecessors, Trump wanted to get NATO countries to spend more on their own defense. When McMaster learned that Trump had deleted a line from his prepared speech reaffirming the U.S. commitment to defending its allies, he pressured a reluctant Tillerson and Mattis to join him in dissuading Trump from such a move. Although they convinced him to modify the speech, Trump’s skepticism about NATO has never disappeared.
In his current presidential campaign, Trump has reiterated that he may not support NATO allies that do not contribute enough to defense spending.
The radio version of this interview was produced by Lilly Quiroz and the digital version was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
Copyright: NPR
