National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster caught calling Donald Trump an “idiot”
Update: McMaster’s own people are now trying to minimize the damage by claiming this never happened, and implying that it was made up by Steve Bannon. However, this makes no sense. If Bannon had made up this story, he would have floated it back when McMaster was trying to get him fired several months ago instead of waiting until now. We stand by this article. Of course McMaster’s camp is denying something so embarrassing; that denial carries zero editorial weight. Original article: Donald Trump seems to be in denial about just how little mainstream Americans think of him, even as polls reveal that he’s the most unpopular first-year U.S. President in the history of polling. It turns out Trump also has a popularity and respect problem much closer to home. Earlier this year it was revealed that Trump’s handpicked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called him a “f—ing moron” behind his back. Now it turns out another cabinet-level adviser shares a similar opinion of Trump.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called Donald Trump an “idiot” and a “dope” and a “kindergartner” during a private dinner, according to a Vanity Fair report (link). As a general rule, if one of your own top underlings is running around calling you these kinds of names behind your back, it means you have a rogue employee – but if multiple top underlings are saying the same kinds of things about you, it means you’re the problem. So now what?
Trump never did fire Rex Tillerson for Moron-gate, though that may have had something to do with Tillerson’s status as a close friend and associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently called the shots in the Trump administration. McMaster may be a different matter. Earlier scattered reports suggested that Trump found McMaster annoying, and that he was only reluctant to get rid of him due to the previous difficulty in trying to keep the National Security Adviser position staffed.
So even as Donald Trump now tries to decide whether or not to fire H.R. McMaster for idiot-gate, it’s worth keeping in mind that Trump had to fire McMaster’s predecessor Michael Flynn for his numerous secret and illicit connections to foreign governments. It’s also worth watching how many more of Trump’s senior-most advisers end up getting caught insulting his intelligence. At this point it’s clear they’re all thinking the same thing about it.
