President Trump’s directive to change the makeup of his National Security Council by including political advisers and diminishing the role of his Joint Chiefs chairman and top intel chief is a big mistake, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
Trump’s order, which he signed Saturday, invited Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon and Counselor Kellyanne Conway “to any NSC meetings.”
The reshuffling also touches the Principals Committee, which is “the Cabinet-level interagency forum” for discussing national security issues. Under Trump’s reorganization, the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in this case Gen. Joe Dunford, will be invited to attend only when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” Previously, they had a standing invitation to all Principals Committee meetings, based on a directive from then-President Obama in 2009.
“Adding people to the National Security Council never really bothers me,” Gates said on ABC’s “This Week.” “My biggest concern is there are actually, under the law, only two statutory advisers to the National Security Council and that’s the director of [national] intelligence, or the DNI, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I think pushing them out of the National Security Council meetings except when their specific issues are at stake is a big mistake,” he said. “I think that they both bring a perspective and judgment and experience to bear that every president, whether they like it or not, finds useful.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” took issue with including Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, in NSC meetings.
“I am worried about the National Security Council, who are the members of it and who are the permanent members of it,” said McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history.
“The role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been diminished, as I undersand, with this reorganization. If one person was indispensable, it would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in my view. So it’s of concern with this, quote, ‘reorganization.'”
Sean Spicer, the president’s spokesman, also appeared on “This Week” Sunday morning and said “the president gets plenty of information from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“But what they have done is modernize the National Security Council so that it is less bureaucratic and more focused on providing the president with the intelligence he needs to make decisions.”
Host Martha Raddatz asked Spicer why Bannon would be a regular part of the group.
“Well, he was a former naval officer,” Spicer said. “He’s got a tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now.”
In the Navy, Bannon was a surface warfare officer who served aboard the destroyer Paul F. Foster. He also was a special assistant to the chief of naval operations.
“He’s not giving advice,” Spicer said. “Part of this is analysis. The data comes in and how we synthesize that data to make the best decision for our country is something that’s not just about intelligence. It’s about the intelligence that comes in and the analysis that comes out of that. Having key decision-makers and the chief strategist for the president to come in and talk about what the strategy is going forward is crucial.
“The data comes in raw, and what these key individuals do is help provide guidance for the president to make decisions,” he said. “Having the chief strategist for the president in those meetings who has a significant military background to help guide what the president’s final analysis is going to be [is] crucial.”
In September, former President George W. Bush’s Chief of Staff Josh Bolten explained why Senior Adviser Karl Rove wasn’t invited to NSC meetings.
“The reason you never saw Karl Rove in a national security meeting was that the president told Karl Rove, ‘you may never come to a National Security Council meeting,'” Bolten said during a National Security Forum held in Austin, Texas. “We didn’t advertise that, but the president made that clear right at the beginning. If it’s an NSC meeting, you may not appear. And it wasn’t because he didn’t respect Karl’s advice or didn’t value his input. He valued it enormously, and Karl is one of the — one of the brightest and most eclectically informed and bright individuals I’ve ever known, who could have substantially useful input on almost any issue.
“But the president also knew that the signal he wanted to send to the rest of his administration, the signal he wanted to send to the public, and the signal he especially wanted to send to the military is that the decisions I’m making that involve life and death for the people in uniform will not be tainted by any political decisions.”
