A senior National Security Council aide was terminated Friday after he ripped into President Donald Trump and some of his aides, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, in a closed-doors meeting, Politico reports.
Craig Deare, hired by former NSC adviser Michael Flynn to work as the senior director for Western Hemispheres, blasted the Trump administration at a private roundtable hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center earlier this week.
In the discussion, he allegedly complained about senior aides having no access to Trump and gave an embarrassing readout of the phone call that took place between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Deare also criticized Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also one of Trump’s senior aides.
Deare’s dismissal comes the same week as Flynn’s resignation and during a shakeup at the NSC. The White House caught flak for giving Bannon a permanent spot on the NSC while also limiting the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence. Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, Trump’s pick to replace Flynn, turned down the job this week.
Flynn resigned amid revelations that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about discussing sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.