White House denies national security advisor McMaster set to exit
The White House denied on Thursday night that it might replace national security advisor McMaster as early as the end of this month, in what would be the latest move in a long string of staff shake-ups and strained relations between McMaster and the president.
Spokesman for the National Security Council Michael Anton said in an announcement he had assisted a meeting between Trump and H.R McMaster in the Oval Office and the president had said the NBC story was "fake news".
"He told McMaster he is doing a great job," Anton said.
NBC had reported just hours earlier that the White House was already looking for a replacement for McMaster and that the move had been orchestrated by chief of staff John Kelly and defense secretary James Mattis.
Although the White House denied the NBC report, strains in relations between the advisor and the president had been widely reported on previously. In particular, some believed McMaster's remarks during a security conference in Germany that there was "incontrovertible" proof that Russia had meddled in the elections in favour of Trump had riled the White House.
Indeed, on that occassion Trump responded on Twitter by saying McMaster had forgotten to say that the results of the elections hadn’t been modified and that the only collusion was the one between Russia, "corrupt Hillary", the DNC and the democrats.
McMaster was not part of Trump's campaign, having joined the White House to replace Michael Flynn, who came under fire and stepped down after admitting that he lied to the FBI regarding conversations he held with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak concerning US sanctions on Russia and other matters during the transition period following the elections.