Trump Meets with McMaster amid Reports He Cleared Susan Rice, Purged Loyalists

National Security Adviser HR McMaster with Trump. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Alex Wong/Getty Images

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster met with President Donald Trump on Thursday amid numerous reports this week that have raised questions about his loyalty to the president.

Two bombshell reports dropped on Thursday.

One, by Circa, said McMaster allowed Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice to keep her top secret security clearance without the president’s knowledge and despite reports she had unmasked Trump campaign and transition associates.

The other, by Bloomberg, said McMaster has concluded that Rice did nothing wrong in unmasking Trump associates.

A Washington Times report noted that Breitbart News “has published several stories this week calling into question Gen. McMaster’s actions.”

The reports came after McMaster purged three National Security Council (NSC) officials who were there before him and are considered loyalists to Trump’s foreign policy agenda. He is reportedly allowing former top Obama officials to come and go as they please and has reportedly banned usage of the phrase “Obama holdover” at the NSC.

This week, McMaster fired Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the NSC’s senior director for intelligence. Last week, he fired Derek Harvey, a key Middle East adviser at the NSC. Two weeks ago, he fired Rich Higgins, the NSC director of strategic planning after he penned a memo warning about globalists and Islamists undermining Trump’s agenda.

All of the turmoil comes as McMaster is pushing a plan to send at least 3,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, which the president has viewed with deep skepticism.

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