Trump to Replace McMaster and Sessions?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Washington is a rumor mill. Reports often surface in the media - some true, others false.
According to the CIA-connected Washington Post, Trump intends firing National Security Advisor HR McMaster.
Several replacements are being considered, neocon hardliner John Bolton perhaps the leading candidate.
He’s a former Bush/Cheney recess-appointed UN envoy, resigning after 16 months of service because of his likely inability to be confirmed in January 2007 by an undemocratic Dem-controlled Senate.
He’s currently a senior fellow at the neocon-infested American Enterprise Institute, also affiliated with other hard-right organizations.
He was presidential aspirant Mitt Romney’s political advisor during his 2012 campaign, and a regular Fox News contributor.
Like Bill Clinton and GW Bush, he was a draft dodger during the Vietnam war - turned chicken hawk, years later saying “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.”
A protege of former hardline North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, he’s held various government service positions.
He’s a leading advocate for excluding prosecutions of Americans at the International Criminal Court (ICC), claiming nonexistent constitutional grounds.
Notorious for making undiplomatic public statements, he expressed extreme hostility toward North Korea, calling its government a tyrannical dictatorship.
Last year, he belligerently said “the only longterm way to deal with (its) nuclear weapons program is” regime change, adding:
“It’s not enough…to impose sanctions…(T)his (government) poses a threat to stability in the region that undermines security” - a bald-faced lie.
Earlier he accused Iran of lying to the IAEA. The organization refuted his claim. He called Palestinian statehood aims a “ploy.”
In a policy paper, he said “the United Nations can be a useful instrument in the conduct of American foreign policy.” He was the most extremist ever US UN envoy - until Nikki Haley’s appointment.
In March 2015, he called for bombing Iran to stop its bomb, accusing Obama of “fostering a nuclear Iran” by the JCPOA nuclear deal.
He’s militantly Russophobic, saying sanctions aren’t enough, calling for “mak(ing) the Russians feel pain.”
Earlier he urged confronting China’s nonexistent “aggressiveness,” adding Washington should “shake up” its relationship with Beijing.
According to WaPo, “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.”
Separately, Vanity Fair headlined “ ‘Trump wants them out of there:’ After swinging the axe at Tillerson, Trump mulls what to do with McMaster, Sessions, Jared and Ivanka” - perhaps along with other administration officials.
After replacing Tillerson, Trump said “I’m really at a point where we’re getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that I want” - suggesting more changes to come.
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