KT McFarland To Step Down In Trump Admin Shake-up

It seems the shake-ups at the White House are not over quite yet. President Donald Trump's administration has reportedly asked Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland to step down from her position. Reports of McFarland being ousted from the National Security Council come less than 3 months after she first stepped into the role. McFarland has reportedly been asked to take on the role of U.S. ambassador to Singapore, a position which requires Senate confirmation.

According to Bloomberg News, which first broke the news of McFarland's potential career change, McFarland has reportedly been asked to step down as the president's deputy national security advisor as a result of Trump's national security advisor reorganization of the National Security Council. McFarland is expected to be nominated as U.S. ambassador to Singapore, a post that requires Senate confirmation and has been vacant since Trump's inauguration in January.

McFarland was appointed deputy national security adviser in late November by Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser. In February, however, Flynn resigned amid reports he'd failed to disclose conversations he'd had with the Russian ambassador to the United States to Vice President Mike Pence. At the time, it was reported Flynn's replacement, H.R. McMaster, was going to keep McFarland in her post on the National Security Council. However, a report from CNN earlier this month claimed Dina Powell's appointment as deputy national security adviser for strategy had cast some doubt over McFarland's role on the National Security Council.

According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is promoting McFarland's nomination to the role of U.S. ambassador of Singapore as a promotion, characterizing the position as "a critically important diplomatic post." McFarland's departure from the National Security Council comes amid rumors President Trump is planning a broad staff shake-up after removing Chief White House Strategist Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council.

McFarland has decades of experience in national security, having held a variety of positions in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations prior to her appointment with the Trump administration. In the early to mid-70s McFarland worked as an aide to Henry Kissinger. In 1981 she became a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Staff while working as a senior speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and later deputy assistant secretary of Defense and Pentagon spokesman.

McFarland will reportedly stay on as President Trump's deputy national security adviser for another two weeks, according to political blog the Hill.