Trump Can be Manipulated with Flattery, Former NSA Claims as He Recalls Putin Pressing The Ex-POTUS

Former National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster said that former President Donald Trump can be manipulated with flattery on any given day. In an excerpt from his book, At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House McMaster revealed how Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried manipulating Trump. The former NSA to the Republican frontrunner for upcoming presidential elections called for "a competent team around him," for a better functioning government if he is elected as the POTUS again.

Speaking on CBS’ Face the Nation, McMaster said, "He can make really sound decisions and disrupt things that need to be disrupted in terms of foreign policy, national security, but oftentimes struggles to hang on to those decisions and see them through. People know kind of how to push his buttons, especially buttons associated with maintaining the complete support of his political base." The retired army lieutenant general went on to describe his meetings in the White House as "exercises in competitive sycophancy." According to an excerpt from the book that was published by the Wall Street Journal McMaster recalled how, "Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery."

Speaking with Margaret Brennan, the former NSA who served Trump between February 2017 to April 2018 shared, "I struggled, Margaret, should I write about how Putin tried to manipulate President Trump, or not?" as he mentioned his journey and mental battles while journaling the book. "And I thought, well, Putin knows how he was trying to do it. So maybe in writing about how Putin was trying to press Donald Trump’s buttons, that will make a future President Trump, if he’s elected, less susceptible to that kind of tactics," he continued. Previously, Trump had highlighted on many occasions his friendship with autocratic world leaders like Putin and North Korean Kim Jong Un. The business tycoon even went on to call his exchange of letters with Jong Un "love letters," as reported by People.

According to Politico while discussing the USA's relationship with Iran and how Trump tackled it, McMaster lauded the ex-POTUS. In his view, the decision to withdraw from the nuclear treaty with Iran was a bold and important step taken by the businessman-turned-politician. "The narrative around that first year was all about chaos, but we got a lot done," he said. Focussing on Iran and how Trump and Biden administration's differing take with the Middle-east country has made it a serious concern, McMaster said, that Iran "is willing to expend every Arab life, every Palestinian life, every Lebanese life, in pursuit of its objective of destroying Israel." 

"I think that the narrative that you constantly hear about turning down the temperature, escalation management, the reluctance, really, to confront Iran directly and impose costs on Iran, that actually gives Iran license to escalate on their own terms, with impunity," he added.