'In the Kremlin’s pocket': Ex-Trump NatSec advisor says world leaders thought he was a 'chump'

27 August 2024

H.R. McMaster — the three-star general who served as former President Donald Trump's national security adviser for a little more than a year — is shedding new light on how the 45th president of the United States was viewed by the rest of the world.

The New York Times is reporting that in his new book, At War With Ourselves, McMaster wrote that Trump was often outmaneuvered by world leaders who used flattery to take advantage of him. This was particularly true with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2018, McMaster described how he once saw Trump writing a complimentary letter to Putin to go with a copy of a New York Post article in which he called Trump a "good listener" while criticizing the American political system.

"Like a child with his Christmas wish list, the leader of the free world asked McMaster to send it to the Kremlin. It was especially bad timing: Evidence was coming to light that Putin had directed an assassination on British soil," the Times' Nicolas Niarchos wrote in his review of the book. "McMaster did not forward the note, later explaining to an infuriated Trump that his letter would 'reinforce the narrative that you are somehow in the Kremlin’s pocket.'"

McMaster wrote that foreign leaders treated the former president like a "chump" in their various interactions with him. During a 2017 trip across Asia, the former national security advisor recalled how he warned his boss to not let Chinese President Xi Jinping trick him into agreeing with policies that would benefit China and/or harm the U.S. or its allies. However, Trump wound up agreeing with Xi that military exercises in South Korea were a "waste of time" and that China had a case to annex Japanese territory.

"[Xi] ate our lunch," McMaster wrote in a note to then-White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Even when not dealing with international affairs, McMaster wrote that the Trump White House was a "vortex of vitriol" in which staffers were constantly trying to one-up each other with gratuitous displays of sycophancy combined with "accusations of disloyalty" against each other. He also regarded former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon (currently an inmate in federal prison) as similar to both the "Iago" character in Shakespeare's play "Othello," who plays on the leader's insecurities, and the "weird sisters" in the play "Macbeth," who rile up the king with prophesies.

While the former national security adviser never outright said Trump was unfit to serve a second term, Niarchos noted that McMaster was known for "strenuous expressions of humility," and didn't spare himself and other top advisors from blame for Trump's poor performance on the world stage. He cited Roman philosopher Seneca, who "emphasized the need to have control over one’s own mind."

"Trump’s anxieties and insecurities rendered him vulnerable," McMaster wrote in the book.

McMaster took over as national security adviser following the short-lived and controversial tenure of Major General Michael Flynn, who only served in the role for roughly three weeks before resigning. The Washington Post uncovered evidence that Flynn both had unsanctioned foreign policy talks with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and lied to the outgoing Obama administration about those conversations.

Click here to read the Times' full review of the book (subscription required).

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