Gen McMaster’s blistering account of the Trump White House.

Ben mcmaster's blistering account of the Trump white house until now Lieutenant Jen HR McMaster has held his fire about his stint in the Trump White House McMaster served with distinction in key American conflicts of the past decades the Gulf War the Iraq War and the Afghan war but as McMaster recounts in his new book at war with ourselves my Tour of Duty in the Trump lighthouse in some ways his most challenging tour as a soldier was his last one serving as the National Security adviser to a notorious Mercurio president in his blistering insightful account of this time in the Trump White House McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as exercises in competitive psychopy during which Trump's advisers would flatter the president by saying stuff like your instincts are always right or no one has ever been treated so badly by the Press meanwhile Trump would say outlandish things like why don't we just Bond the drugs in Mexico or why don't we take out the whole North Korean army during one of their parades mcmaster's book which focuses on Trump's tenure as commander-in-chief comes at a particularly timely moment just as many Americans start to really consider whether Trump or vice president Kamala Harris would make a better commander-in-chief in her acceptance speech for her nomination to the presidency at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday haris spent some of her speech trying to demonstrate her National Security credentials she talked for instance about the war in Gaza saying that as president she would stand firm on the US alliance with Israel to ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself Harris also said that the Palestinians have their right to dignity security freedom and self-determination with this speech Harris was trying to threat a delicate needle between Americans who strongly opposed the war many of them in her own party and those who back Israel wholeheartedly McMaster provides unique detail on Trump's approach to foreign policy and similarly to his successor in the National Security advisor role former United Nations ambassador John Bolton who wrote scathingly about the former president in a book published in 2020 his account is likely to do little to reassure us allies about the prospects of a second Trump turn in addition to being a highly decorated officer McMaster also has a doctorate in history his first book dear eltion of Duty Johnson McNamara The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the lies that led to Vietnam recounted the Dismal history of how the top American generals told president Lynden Johnson only what they thought he wanted to hear about the Vietnam War rather than giving him their best military advice about how the conflict was going and the full range of policy options that were open to their commanderin-chief tell Trump what he didn't want to hear McMaster wasn't going to make the same mistake after Trump tapped him to be his National Security adviser in February 2017 he writes I knew that to fulfill my duty I would have to tell Trump what he didn't want to hear this helps explain why McMaster lasted just over a year in the job disclosure I have known McMaster professionally since 2010 when he ran an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan one subject was particularly neuralgic for Trump Russia McMaster astutely observes I wish that Trump could separate the issue of Russian election meddling from the legitimacy of his presidency he could have said yes they attack the election but Russia doesn't care who wins our elections what they want to do is pit Americans against one another McMaster writes that the fragility of Trump's ego and his deep sense of agreement would never allow him to make this kind of Distinction McMaster felt it was his duty to point out to Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not and would never be Trump's friend McMaster warned Trump that Putin is the best liar in the world and would try to play Trump to get what he wanted and manipulate him with ambiguous Promises of a better relationship the final straw that ended ncm's tenure in the White House seems to have been when he publicly said on February 17 2018 at the Munich security forum the annual Gathering of top Western foreign policy officials that the indictment of a group of Russian Intelligence Officers with their interference in the 2016 US presidential election was inconvertible evidence of Russian meddling in that election Trump soon tweeted General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or Changed by the Russians once the commander-in-chief started publicly castigating him on Twitter it was obvious that McMaster would not be long for the White House