DISSENTER IN THE WHITE HOUSE – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  The most interesting person in the new administration, by quite a bit I think, is Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the president's new national security adviser.

McMaster's appointment received almost universal praise.  He has been described, in words that may come back to haunt both him and the president, as, among other things, the best Army officer of his generation, a dissenter in the tradition of Rickover and Billy Mitchell, and a superlative combat commander who brings battlefield experience to an already considerable intellect. 

McMaster brings other characteristics as well:  1) He has the support of a press that despises his boss; 2) He has his own constituency.  He is like the superlative opera singer who can hear the special, loud applause of his claque at every performance.  That means that, although Trump can fire him, he also holds power over Trump.  He is, at the outset, perhaps the most powerful figure in the administration.   Everything he does will be watched, with admiration by some, jealousy by others.  If he becomes a star, the term "President McMaster" is not out of the question.

The world is his oyster, and the knives will be at his back.

McMaster wrote "Dereliction of Duty," which questioned the behavior of America's military leaders during the Vietnam War.  It is now considered required reading in the Army.  The general will be sensitive to the lessons of his own book.  But he could easily become "locked in" to those lessons. 

There are some resemblances to Douglas MacArthur, although McMaster is far less famous.  MacArthur was a major commander in the greatest war in history, World War II.  He became a five-star general.  He'd had some of the highest grades in the history of West Point.  His landing at Inchon during the Korean War was the key step in the saving of South Korea.  But MacArthur, a man of robust ego, went too far in questioning the judgment of President Harry S. Truman, and Truman fired him.  The firing stunned a nation that had come to see MacArthur as a god.  Indeed, during MacArhur's poignant and dramatic farewell speech to Congress, a representative from Missouri pointed to him and exclaimed, "That's God up there."  The god was reduced considerably in the following years as the public began to disagree with his arguments.  The god never even came close to the presidency, which he coveted.

Now comes McMaster.  He is not MacArthur in record, stature, or public fame, but he has been the recipient of a deserved buildup.  If he should resign his position as a matter of principle, a resignation in protest, he could devastate the Trump administration.  He knows that.  So does Donald Trump.   McMaster, though, also knows the history of Douglas MacArthur.

Things are getting interesting, aren't they?

February 26,  2017