Power & Security, United States Under O’Brien, N.S.C. Carries Out Trump’s Policy, but Doesn’t Develop It
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February 21, 2020
By
Michael Crowley and David E. Sanger | The New York Times
Perry World House's Director of Communications and Research, John Gans, and our 2018-19 Visiting Fellow, Nadia Schadlow, are quoted in this piece from The New York Times.
When President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, convenes meetings with top National Security Council officials at the White House, he sometimes opens by distributing printouts of Mr. Trump’s latest tweets on the subject at hand...
...“One thing a polarized Washington has been able to agree on is that the N.S.C. got too big,” said John Gans, who has worked at the Pentagon and is the author of a book on the National Security Council.
But shrinking the size of the National Security Council may actually hurt the president’s agenda since it holds departments and agencies accountable for carrying it out, according to Nadia Schadlow, who served as Mr. McMaster’s deputy and was the principal author of Mr. Trump’s national security strategy.
“I understand why this is happening,” Ms. Schadlow said. “But at some point, it could hurt the implementation of the president’s policies.”...
...Mr. O’Brien’s willingness to trim the National Security Council, Mr. Gans said, “says something about Trump’s Washington.”
“The national security adviser should have the strongest staff possible,” he continued. “But it seems like Robert O’Brien is focused more on that audience of one — and making sure that Donald Trump is happy.”
