Last month, President Trump appointed his political strategist, Stephen Bannon, to a full seat on the principals committee of the National Security Council. At the same time, he downgraded the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence. These senior defense experts will attend meetings only when "issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed."
The Security Council is meant to be apolitical, as Loren Schulman, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the Miami Herald. Its job is to coordinate national security policy among military and security agencies and advise the president and executive staff on domestic, foreign and military policies. Separating politics from the Security Council makes sense, as it protects the council from, say, political pressure to use military actions to distract public attention from a scandal.
Thus, in two steps, the president has peeled away two layers of protection:
• First, he has inserted politics into the Security Council, a body that coordinates and advises policy.
• Second — and perhaps more importantly — he has cut himself off from the experience and knowledge of people who know and understand military and intelligence issues.
Does this make us safer?
Barbara S. Murdock, St. Paul
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Thank you for the profile of Steve Bannon, who, with an office next to President Trump's, is one of the most influential men in America at the moment ("Bannon turning ideas into policy," Feb. 1). What I don't understand is why it took 21 paragraphs to reveal his connection to the white supremacist movement, and 25 paragraphs to allow him in his own words to identify his real agenda: "Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power." For a man whose fingerprints are already all over the Trump blitz of the past two weeks, it's probably important to know where he really stands.
