- Eli Lake and Rosie Gray on difficulties in Trump’s NSC
- McMaster faces limits on overhauling Flynn’s NSC
From Will Edwards, The Cipher Brief: “The appointment of Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor was not the Trump Administration’s first shake-up on the National Security Council, and it is unlikely to be the last. The Trump Administration’s decision to upend the NSC’s organization is an effort to correct what many believed had become a bloated bureaucratic structure that could not attain its key goals.”
An ally of potential national security adviser Robert Harward is soliciting resumes from a who's who of Republican foreign policy insiders and says the retired admiral and former Navy SEAL plans to revamp the White House’s National Security Council following the resignation earlier this week of Michael Flynn, according to an email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. – Washington Free Beacon
David Roberts writes: A “team of rivals” that transcends party lines, composed of eminent men and women, could rein in the administration. This bipartisan group, preferably endorsed by past U.S. presidents, would be made up of former cabinet members and heads of independent federal agencies. Inspired by the British Shadow Cabinet, it would be structured to mirror the official cabinet and would issue rapid, sharp critiques and cogent alternatives to the administration’s most dangerous policies. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)