President-elect Donald Trump just scored a major name for his administration: Kathleen Troia McFarland, better known as K.T. McFarland, who will be joining the Trump administration as deputy national security advisor.
McFarland has an extensive career serving in various national security positions in the federal government. Fox News provides some highlights from her resume:
Ms. McFarland held national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations: as an aide to Dr. Henry Kissinger, senior speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and later a principal deputy assistant secretary of defense Pentagon spokesman. She wrote the Weinberger Principles of War which laid out the Reagan administration’s policy regarding use of force: in essence, only go to war if it is in America’s vital national interest, and then only to win. Ms. McFarland received the Defense Department’s highest civilian award for her work in the Reagan Administration.
McFarland has also been a national security analyst for Fox News since 2010 and has appeared on several shows on the network, as well as on Fox Business. She has been critical of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Back in 2014, McFarland skewered Obama on Fox for his inept handling of ISIS.
“The president stuck his head in the sand, and now we’ve seen that two Americans have lost their heads,” McFarland said. She also said that Obama needs to secure the border and stop political correctness from hampering foreign policy matters, and then accused Obama of “dereliction of duty.”
“What was this president doing?” McFarland said. “Well, he was playing a lot of golf this summer, but he clearly was not attending to the defense of the United States.”
McFarland has also been critical of the Iran deal, but did praise Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013, writing: “Putin is the one who really deserves that Nobel Peace Prize.”
McFarland also ran in the GOP Senate primary to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2006, but dropped out after her daughter was arrested for shoplifting.
She will not need to be confirmed by the Senate for her to join the Trump administration.
“Nobody has called foreign policy right more than President-elect Trump, and he gets no credit for it,” McFarland said in a statement. “I’m honored and humbled that he has asked me to be part of his team.”
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman also praised McFarland’s pick, saying in a statement: “In asking KT McFarland to become his Deputy National Security Advisor, President-elect Trump has brought to the top ranks of his Administration one of our country’s most experienced, informed, and wise foreign policy and national security experts. She is a woman of honor, compassion, and patriotism.”
