White House quietly trims dozens of national security experts
WASHINGTON - Six days before President Donald Trump chose Robert O'Brien as his national security adviser in September, the president said the job would be simple.
"You know why it's easy?" Trump told reporters. "Because I make all the decisions. They don't have to work."
As a key White House adviser, O'Brien clearly works - but he meets Trump's other job requirements: He avoids publicity, he gets out of the way on policy decisions and he dismisses employees Trump views as meddlesome.
Unlike his predecessors, John Bolton or H.R. McMaster, who pursued their own agendas or tried to block some of Trump's impulses, O'Brien has taken a wrecking ball to parts of the National Security Council, the intelligence and foreign policy hub of the White House, to satisfy a president who doesn't trust experts, is suspicious of career government employees and acts on his own whims.
Long before O'Brien had security guards
