Who is Monica Crowley, Trump's latest national security team addition?
Dr. Crowley is one of two key national security appointments announced Thursday.
Dr. Crowley is one of two key national security appointments announced Thursday.
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 鈥渢he President鈥檚 principal forum 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.聽
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 critic of President Obama, with little national leadership experience and outspoken support for Trump, 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.
海角大神鈥檚 Peter Grier explained the pattern further, comparing Trump鈥檚 appointments to a season of "Survivor: Bureaucracy."聽
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 influential player on foreign policy issues and a close advisor to the president," explains The Washington Post.聽
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," says The New York Times. Indeed, Rhodes had "a critical hand in shaping the administration鈥檚 global security policies and then selling those policies to the world,"聽adds the Daily Beast.聽
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 in a statement. "With vision, courage and moral clarity, he is committed fully to reestablishing America鈥檚 singular place in the world."