Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2016- President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named a hard-line former Reagan administration official to his national security staff and a prominent election lawyer as White House counsel, continuing to round out the team that will shape his policies on security and legal affairs.
For deputy national security adviser, Trump chose Kathleen “KT” McFarland, a Fox News analyst who vocally opposes many of President Obama’s national security policies. She will serve as deputy under National Security adviser designee Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and fierce critic of Obama’s stances on Islamist extremism.
Trump also filled the key position of White House counsel with Donald F. McGahn, a veteran election lawyer, who was Trump’s campaign lawyer and an unofficial liaison to the Washington establishment that Trump spent much of the campaign opposing. The White House counsel essentially serves as the president’s personal lawyer and is influential in shaping policy; also occasionally restraining what the chief executive may want to do.
The president-elect praised both choices, which do not require Senate confirmation. “I am proud that KT has once again decided to serve our country and join my national security team,” he said in a statement issued from his estate in Florida, where he is spending Thanksgiving weekend. “She has tremendous experience and innate talent that will complement the fantastic team we are assembling.”
McFarland was quoted as saying she is “honored and humbled” and praising Trump’s judgment on international affairs, which has been subjected to intense criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. “Nobody has called foreign policy right more than President-elect Trump, and he gets no credit for it,’’ McFarland said.
The announcement included bipartisan statements of support from former senator Joe Lieberman (D), the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee, and Robert C. “Bud” McFarlane, who worked with McFarland as President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Adviser. “As a friend and colleague, I’ve watched KT’s depth of knowledge and understanding grow,’’ said McFarlane, who called Trump’s choice “ one of our country’s most insightful national security analysts.’’
McFarland served on the National Security Council during the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations has been a national security analyst and contributor for Fox News since 2010. She has called Obama weak on counterterrorism, criticized what she calls “open borders” in Europe and echoed Trump’s calls for a crackdown on letting Syrian refugees into the United States because of potential terrorism fears.