Trump boosts McMaster amid criticism: 'A good man and very pro-Israel'
President Trump defended National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in a statement Friday evening, attempting to ward off right-wing criticism the official has attracted this week. "General McMaster and I are working very well together," Trump said. "He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."
McMaster has come under fire for his dismissal of several National Security Council staff members; his approach to the war in Afghanistan; and his renewal of security clearance for former President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice.
"McMaster has been undermining the president to the point of insubordination," said Mike Cernovich, a controversial right-wing activist who runs McMasterLeaks.com, in a representative critique of the former general. "For example," he continued, "McMaster has been pulling the security clearances of pro-Trump members of the NSC."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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