Now, I wonder who the heck is going to be the top National Security advisor? I've seen Petraeus be mentioned once. CNN seems to be unsure who the acting NS advisor is :/
The three names seem to be Keith Kellogg, Bob Harward and David Petreus.
Kellogg is the current acting National Security Advisor. He was promoted over the current deputy, KT McFarland, who had faced her own problems. She has previously been caught embellishing her credentials when she served under the Regan administration (claiming she worked on the "Star Wars" speech when she didn't) and has faced general accusations of incompetence.
Kellogg himself was a
fairly early supporter of Trump, but I don't have the best handle on where his views rest. Probably closer to Mattis than Flynn, but still close to Trump on his priorities and worldview. If I had to guess, Trump will give it to him given his early loyalty and support.
Petreus still has that revoked military clearance, misdemeanour guilty plea and undying hatred of the FBI and many others in the IC and military. Leaking highly classified secrets to your mistress will do that. Otherwise considered an excellent choice who would be fairly independent.
Harward served directly under Mattis. He has
relevant experience on the NSC and NCC. Of the three he looks most qualified to me, although his ties to Mattis do need to be taken into consideration. There were already some fears that too many in the senior advisor roles are drawn from a very tight circle (those who served with/under Mattis), making for limited viewpoints during debates over actions. This would take that trend further. Despite his qualifications his lack of celebrity or public support for Trump suggest to me he will lose out to Kellogg. Also he
graduated high school in Iran so might not be able to get back into the country after foreign trips.
EDIT:
Now looks like leaning towards Haward.Notably, Flynn resigned
only for lying to the Vice President. Nothing else was mentioned in his resignation letter. It looks like they are hoping his resignation will allow the to ignore the substantive charges against him. Down to Congressional Democrats to keep the investigations rolling, even if the Republicans who head the committees are trying to ignore it. Nunes looks more interested in investigating the sources of the leaks than the substance of the accusations.
There is a special edition of
Rational Security, a national security podcast recorded by relative insiders, recorded before the resignation
here where they discuss a lot of the aspects of Flynn's actions. One thing they mentioned was the overall timeline of his phone call. Essentially the transition team were briefed in the morning on the sanctions that were to be put on Russia in the afternoon. Between the briefing and Russians being notified of the sanctions (about 4 1/2 hours) Flynn had five phone calls with the Russian ambassador. The Russians then had no reaction to the sanctions. Susan Hennessey, a former IC lawyer whose
twitter feed is great for keeping up to date on things, also suggests that the ongoing investigation would be an counter-intelligence investigation, not a Logan Act (criminal, but likely unenforceable) investigation. Lots of other interesting discussions in there as well.
In unrelated news, Obamacare repeal is running into some problems.
House Republicans want to do a full repeal, including the Medicare expansion. Suggestions from the Senate suggest that will lose them more than a dozen Republican senators, making repeal on that basis likely impossible.
This seems a reasonable rundown of the main players.EDIT: We also have the Trump administration's first
overseas terror suspect. He was captured in Yemin and is currently being held overseas. He is wanted in New York. Trump pledged to send terror suspects to Guantánamo Bay. This is the first test of that pledge.
EDIT2:
Trump hired 64 foreign workers for Mar-a-Lago on H2B visas. This is the resort where he is now having unsecured security briefings in front of the paying public, so it's nice to know he doesn't view foreign workers as potential security risks. At least when he is paying them.
EDIT3:
Andy Puzder might be facing a tough confirmation as Labor Secretary. Four Republicans are withholding their support ahead of hearings, mostly related to his previous hiring of an undocumented housekeeper. There are plenty of other issues with him that the Democrats are likely to hammer him on.