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White House Fires Senior NSC Aide for Harsh Trump Criticism

Donald Trump
AP
February 18, 2017

The White House on Friday fired a senior National Security Council aide after learning that he severely criticized President Donald Trump and his top aides, including daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, at an event in Washington, D.C.

The aide, Craig Deare, was dismissed by the Trump administration after he castigated the administration's senior officials at an off-the-record roundtable hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center, a think tank based in the nation's capital, Politico reported Saturday.

Deare served as the NSC's senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs and was previously the dean of administration at National Defense University.

At the roundtable, Deare lambasted President Trump, chief strategist Stephen Bannon, and problems of dysfunction plaguing the White House. Deare complained that senior national security aides have limited access to the president directly and that Trump had an embarrassing phone call with the president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto.

Deare also reportedly took swipes at Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

Deare's dismissal came just days after former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after it came to light that he did not tell Vice President Mike Pence the truth about a phone call he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in December.

Trump's first pick to replace Flynn, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, declined the position.

Many senior positions in the Trump administration remain vacant amid rumors of infighting among the staff.

Trump recently passed over the pick of many inside and outside his administration to serve as deputy secretary of state, Elliott Abrams, because of his criticism of the president during the campaign.

Abrams served in senior foreign policy roles in both the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.