Who is Monica Crowley, Trump's latest national security team addition?
Monica Crowley will be the senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council (NSC), Donald Trump鈥檚 transition team announced Thursday.
Dr. Crowley, who holds a PhD in international relations from Columbia University in New York, began her career as a research assistant and confidante to former President Richard Nixon in 1990 until his passing in 1994. She has since been a Fox News analyst, hosted a conservative radio show, and authored several books as well as a column in The Washington Times.
Since its inception by President Harry Truman in 1947, the NSC has served as 鈥� for considering national security and foreign policy matters.鈥�
President-elect Trump鈥檚 transition team also announced the appointment of Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg Thursday to the position of NSC鈥檚 chief of staff and executive secretary.听
Lt. Gen. Kellogg and Crowley will serve under the council鈥檚 previously announced leaders: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser and K.T. McFarland as deputy national security adviser.
As a figure in the conservative media, a vocal , with little national leadership experience and , Crowley fits the mold of the president-elect鈥檚 previous pattern of appointments and nominations.
Ms. McFarland and chief strategist Steve Bannon also have media-related resumes. Top cabinet nominees Ben Carson (for secretary of Housing and Urban Development), Rex Tillerson (for secretary of State), Rick Perry (for secretary of Energy), and Scott Pruitt (Environmental Protection Agency) all聽have shown similar levels of loyalty to Trump while clearly exhibiting indirect 鈥� or nontraditional 鈥� experience for their job assignments.
The 海角大神 Science Monitor鈥檚 Peter Grier explained the pattern further, comparing Trump鈥檚 appointments to a season of "Survivor: Bureaucracy."聽
But comparing Trump鈥檚 staff moves to casting a reality show is not totally over the top. Trump won a stunning victory in large part by providing the media a campaign story they could not resist, producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free coverage. Why should he stop the drama now?
But Crowley鈥檚 role is anything but insignificant. She will be replacing Ben Rhodes, Obama鈥檚 senior national security advisor, who has been "an and a close advisor to the president," explains The Washington Post.听
As director of strategic communications, Mr. Rhodes ran the Iran-deal messaging campaign and negotiated the reopening of American-Cuban relations. He is the "single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from POTUS himself," . Indeed, Rhodes had "a critical hand in shaping the administration鈥檚 global security policies and then selling those policies to the world,"聽.听
How Crowley will handle the role, however, is yet to be determined.
"I am deeply honored, humbled and grateful to be asked by the President-elect to join the extraordinary national security team he is assembling," said Crowley . "With vision, courage and moral clarity, he is committed fully to reestablishing America鈥檚 singular place in the world."
