Donald Trump has offered Michael Flynn the national security adviser job

President-elect Donald Trump has asked retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to be his national security adviser, The Associated Press reports and several newspapers confirmed, though it is not clear if the controversial former military intelligence chief has accepted the position. Flynn, 57, retired from the U.S. Army and resigned as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 2014, forced out over his management style and, he said, his hard-line views on Islamist extremism. After leaving the DIA, Flynn became an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, and he became an adviser to Trump and advocate for his campaign earlier this year. National security adviser does not require Senate confirmation.

Along with his controversial comments on Muslims and Islamic extremism, Flynn also raised eyebrows and concerns in 2015 when he attended a black-tie gala in Moscow to celebrate Russian state media outlet RT, sitting next to Vladimir Putin. He later said he was paid to attend the event, and dismissed concerns that his attendance and paid speaking gig at RT was aiding Russian propaganda at a time of tense relations between Moscow and Washington.

Flynn advocates closer ties with Russia and Turkey. His consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group, has nebulous ties with Turkey and several Middle Eastern countries, The New York Times reports, and on Twitter and in person, "his dubious assertions are so common that when he ran the Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates came up with a name for the phenomenon: They called them 'Flynn facts.'"

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Before his two turbulent years heading the DIA, Flynn, a registered Democrat, had a decorated career in military intelligence, rising quickly through the ranks. As national security adviser, he would have the definitive say on how Trump handles all manners of crises around the world, and given Trump's lack of foreign policy experience, Flynn would presumably have a lot of influence in the Trump White House. "He is a very talented information gatherer," Sarah Chayes of the Carnegie Endowment tells The New York Times. "But his thinking process is not sufficiently analytical to test some streams against others and make sense of it, or draw consistent conclusions.... If you listen to him, in 10 minutes you'll hear him contradict himself two or three times."