Yet another official departs Donald Trump’s National Security Council in controversial fashion
Is there anyone left working for Donald Trump’s National Security Council? If there is, that number has dropped – again. Just days after Melania Trump embarrassingly forced the departure of Mira Ricardel over a feud involving airplane seating arrangements, yet another National Security Council official has beaten a path to the exit door.
This time it’s Kirsten Fontenrose, who served as the National Security Council’s Director for the Persian Gulf region, until she resigned last night. The exact reasons for her resignation haven’t been revealed, nor is it clear if her “resignation” was a firing. But what is clear, thanks to the New York Times, is that Fontenrose pushed hard for tougher sanctions against Saudi Arabia for the murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and is now unemployed.
Donald Trump is now on his third National Security Adviser in less than two years, John Bolton. He’s only been on the job a brief time, and now that his top deputy, Ricardel, has been forced out, his future is fuzzy. Trump fired his previous National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, immediately after McMaster dared to publicly criticize Vladimir Putin. Trump’s first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, has pleaded guilty in the Trump-Russia scandal and is scheduled to be sentenced to prison next month.
Trump has never had any interest in keeping the United States secure, as evidenced by his willingness to sell us out to any foreign regime that’s willing to line his pockets. But at this point, the terms “Donald Trump” and “National Security” have come to be antonyms. Trump’s NSC personnel continue to flee the building, and each time he replaces them, it gets even worse.
