Newly departed national security adviser H.R. McMaster thanked President Trump on Friday for the opportunity to serve as head of the National Security Council and wished former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton best of luck as his successor.
“I look forward to many more years of accomplishment from this Administration,” McMaster said in a statement Friday. “I wish the very best to my successor, Ambassador John Bolton. And I thank President Trump for the opportunity to serve our Nation as National Security Advisor.”
McMaster, a lieutenant general, also touted his pride in the National Security Council and listed off areas where he saw success, including helping the president with pressuring a belligerent North Korea, imposing “costs” on Russia while seeking cooperation, and efforts that “led the defeat of ISIS’s so-called ‘caliphate.'”
“These are just a few of the many foreign and security policy accomplishments of President Trump’s first, eventful year in office, McMaster said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised McMaster Friday as a “terrific person” during the press briefing.
Trump announced last month that McMaster would be replaced by Bolton.
The announcement came soon after someone at the White House leaked to reporters that Trump was urged not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election.
McMaster, a three-star general, is also set to retire from the Army later this year.
