NO ONE AT THE HELM AT TEAM TRUMP FOR NATIONAL SECURITY & Re-Builiding National Security Council

• Eli Lake and Rosie Gray on difficulties in Trump’s NSC

• McMaster faces limits on overhauling Flynn’s NSC

Trump’s NSC: A Bureaucratic Balancing Act
From Will Edwards, The Cipher Brief: “The appointment of Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor was not the Trump Administration’s first shake-up on the National Security Council, and it is unlikely to be the last. The Trump Administration’s decision to upend the NSC’s organization is an effort to correct what many believed had become a bloated bureaucratic structure that could not attain its key goals.”

AEI:  How the NSC Should Work

• Zakheim and Cohen on rebuilding order in Trump’s NSC

Eliot Cohen writes: It is more likely, however, that the White House will be the scene of knife fights below decks and shouted orders and counterorders on the quarterdeck. And at the end of the day, Trump, like Captain Ahab, will probably remain topside, pursuing whatever Moby Dick his imagination has just conjured up.  That story did not end particularly well for all aboard. – The Atlantic

Harward is now poised to take over as President Donald Trump’s next national security adviser — after the sudden resignation Monday of retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — and his ascent would likely bolster Mattis’s voice inside an inexperienced White House consumed with power struggles. – Foreign Policy
 
An ally of potential national security adviser Robert Harward is soliciting resumes from a who's who of Republican foreign policy insiders and says the retired admiral and former Navy SEAL plans to revamp the White House’s National Security Council following the resignation earlier this week of Michael Flynn, according to an email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. – Washington Free Beacon
 
David Roberts writes: A “team of rivals” that transcends party lines, composed of eminent men and women, could rein in the administration. This bipartisan group, preferably endorsed by past U.S. presidents, would be made up of former cabinet members and heads of independent federal agencies. Inspired by the British Shadow Cabinet, it would be structured to mirror the official cabinet and would issue rapid, sharp critiques and cogent alternatives to the administration’s most dangerous policies. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Mike Pence showed his clout inside the White House with the Monday firing of Mike Flynn, who allowed the vice president to espouse false information about the national security adviser’s conversations with Russian officials. But Mr. Pence also learned he remains very much a junior partner in the still-forming White House power structure, as a timeline shows President Donald Trump knew about Mr. Flynn’s deceptions for two weeks without informing his No. 2.  – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)