Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who had spent three decades in the military, was appointed as national security adviser by Donald Trump just a month into his presidency. Despite warnings from colleagues who opposed Trump, McMaster took on the role. Thirteen months later, Trump dismissed him.
McMaster reflects on his time in the White House, saying he was used in service to Trump, but he did not attempt to keep his position by simply telling Trump what he wanted to hear. His new book, At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, details the challenges he faced, describing the environment as far more difficult than necessary.
Lt. General. H.R. McMaster and Trump
McMaster’s first meeting with Trump, a daily intelligence briefing, left him unimpressed. He observed that Trump was more focused on performing for the audience in the Oval Office than engaging with the briefing’s content. McMaster described the atmosphere as one of “competitive sycophancy,” where Trump sought both advice and flattery, thriving on the adulation from those around him.
McMaster was initially eager to support Trump’s disruption of what he viewed as weak foreign policies from the previous administration. However, during Trump’s first NATO Summit, McMaster had to intervene to prevent Trump from threatening to withhold defense from NATO countries not paying their dues. McMaster, along with Secretaries Tillerson and Mattis, found common ground in this rare moment of agreement.
Relations between McMaster and other senior officials were often strained. Tillerson and Mattis considered Trump a danger to U.S. interests, while McMaster was unsettled by Trump’s admiration for authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin. Despite his reservations, McMaster attempted to warn Trump about Putin’s manipulative tactics.
McMaster found Trump’s decision-making process to be reflexively contrarian, especially when advisers presented a consensus view. This dynamic played out during a press conference about Venezuela, where Trump ignored Tillerson’s advice not to mention military options.
McMaster decided to resign, but Trump fired him before he could do so. At McMaster’s farewell, Trump joked that McMaster should write positively about him in the future.
McMaster, now at the Hoover Institution, reflects on Trump’s encouragement of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol as an abdication of his constitutional duties. While McMaster avoids stating whether Trump should hold office again, he suggests that a second Trump administration might echo the first.
