President Trump on April 5 removed White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)President Trump on Wednesday removed controversial White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council, part of a sweeping staff reshuffling that elevated key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and left Bannon far less involved in shaping the administration’s day-to-day national security policy. The new order establishing the structure of the council, which was published in the federal registry, puts McMaster in overall charge of the both the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council headed by homeland security adviser Tom Bossert. Even as Bannon has been removed from the list, invitees to principals and deputies meetings now also include the deputy national security adviser for strategy. National security experts acknowledged that the Obama structure had been rife with complaints of too many meetings involving a glut of decision-makers, but those issues could also have been resolved at the discretion of the national security adviser.

Source: Washington Post April 05, 2017 15:45 UTC