NYT: K.T. McFarland Expected To Leave Current Position On NSC

The New York Times reported Tuesday morning that the deputy national security adviser brought in to President Donald Trump’s inner circle by the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was expected to leave that role. But later on Tuesday, K.T. McFarland herself told The Hill she would stay in her current position.

“I just met with the president and he asked that I stay on. I’m thrilled to do so,” she told the publication.

McFarland served Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan before beginning a career as a Fox News analyst, and then as an adviser to Trump.

Flynn resigned from his position as national security adviser Monday night, just days after the Washington Post reported he discussed sanctions on a phone call with Russia’s ambassador to the United States as a civilian in December, before Trump was inaugurated.

Then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates told White House counsel Don McGahn in late January that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, the Post reported Monday.

The former NSC chief of staff, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, has taken Flynn’s place as acting national security adviser, though the Times also reported that it was unlikely Kellogg would stay in that role permanently.

McFarland brought some of Trump’s energy to national security council meetings, the Times reported Sunday. The paper reported that many “apolitical” members of the council were uncomfortable with her displays of partisanship, including at one recent meeting when she urged them to “make America great again.”

At that meeting, Flynn, at least jokingly, seemed to acknowledge his and McFarland’s precarious place in the administration. After a comment about work-life balance, the Times reported, he turned to McFarland and asked: “I wonder if we’ll be here a year from now?”

This post has been updated.