Changes to the National Security Council

Intelligence agency and military leaders out, Steve Bannon in.

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Saturday that removed the nation’s top military and intelligence advisers as regular attendees of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, the interagency forum that deals with policy issues affecting national security.

The executive measure established Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon as a regular attendee, whereas the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence will be allowed to participate only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.”

“The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history,” Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.

“The one person who is indispensable would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view,” McCain added. “So it’s of concern, this ‘reorganization.’”