National security adviser H.R. McMaster has started to clean house at the National Security Council, firing two staffers originally hired by Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser shown the door for lying about his communications with Russia, and loyal to Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
Last week, McMaster fired Derek Harvey, the National Security Council's top official for the Middle East, The Atlantic reports.
And this week, McMaster lowered the boom on Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council's senior director for intelligence.
The White House said of Cohen-Watnick's firing that McMaster "has determined that, at this time, a different set of experiences is best-suited to carrying that work forward."
A senior administration official familiar with the matter told The Atlantic that Cohen-Watnick is expected to be offered another job within the administration.
The Atlantic says McMaster tried to can Cohen-Watnick earlier this year, but was turned down by President Donald Trump following the intervention of Bannon and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The axings come as Trump's appointees appear to be flexing their political muscles more and more.
This week, new White House chief of staff John Kelly fired Anthony Scaramucci, the 10-day-old White House communications director, following Scaramucci's profane rant against Bannon and Reince Priebus, who Kelly replaced.