Former National Security Adviser: Trump Can Be Manipulated with Flattery
Former National Security Adviser: Trump Can Be Manipulated with FlatteryH.R. McMaster, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, stated that while Trump is capable of making sound decisions, he often struggles to remain consistent with them.
In an interview on Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," McMaster revealed that Trump needs "a competent team around him" because he is vulnerable to manipulation. "He can make very sound decisions and disrupt things that need to be disrupted, especially in terms of foreign policy and national security, but he often struggles to hold on to those decisions and see them through," McMaster said.
McMaster added that Trump's political supporters often know how to "push the buttons" that make Trump maintain full support from his political base.
McMaster appeared on the broadcast to promote his new book, "At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House." As a retired three-star Army general who served as Trump's national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018, McMaster described meetings in the White House as "exercises in competitive sycophancy."
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In an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal, McMaster lamented how Russian President Vladimir Putin exploited Trump's weaknesses: "Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump's ego and insecurities with flattery."
Trump and his allies have continually argued that he is better equipped to deal with Putin and other authoritarian leaders compared to his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, because he is perceived as demonstrating great strength and authority, whereas Harris does not.
"Vladimir Putin, just like the Ayatollahs, has played Joe Biden and Kamala Harris like a fiddle," said Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a "Face the Nation" interview earlier this month. Trump has argued that world leaders will walk all over Harris if she is elected president.
Speaking to host Margaret Brennan, McMaster acknowledged that he was hesitant to document Trump's relationship with Putin. "I wondered, Margaret, should I write about how Putin tried to manipulate President Trump, or not? And I thought, well, Putin knows how he was trying to do it. So maybe by writing about how Putin was trying to press Trump's buttons, it will make a future President Trump, if re-elected, less susceptible to those kinds of tactics."
McMaster noted that every presidential administration has people who try to manipulate the president. He added that when Trump was given smart advice, he often made good decisions. One of those was withdrawing the United States from the nuclear treaty with Iran in the spring of 2018.
"The narrative during that first year was all about chaos, but we got a lot done," he said.
Iran, McMaster said, is now a real threat, especially considering that Biden has backed away from some of Trump's policies. He emphasized that the Iranian threat must be taken seriously, as the country is willing to sacrifice Arab, Palestinian, and Lebanese lives in pursuit of its objective of destroying Israel.
McMaster added that an overly soft approach to Iran only gives the country the opportunity to continue escalating with impunity.