Leading National Security Spokesman Michael Anton to Resign From White House Position
National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, one of leading voices defending President Donald Trump’s “America First” view on foreign affairs, announced his intention to leave his White House position on Sunday.
“I will be forever grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to serve my country and implement his agenda,” Anton said in his departure note.
The official, who announced his plans to leave the White House just days after ex-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster left his position, ushering in John Bolton’s administration tenure.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s original national security adviser who is now struggling with a number of controversies tied to Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, hired Anton to the White House post after he wrote the infamous, viral “Flight 93 Election” essay. In the piece, Anton made a passionate stab at a scholarly argument for supporting Trump in the 2016 election, which was aimed mostly at the “Never Trump” conservatives who felt the then-candidate was not sufficiently right-wing or moral.
Anton now intends to join his ultra conservative alma mater Hillsdale College at their Washington, D.C. campus. At the university’s Kirby Center, the official will work as a writer and lecturer, per Politico — a post he chose so he could return to his “first love and second family.”
“Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with — not to mention an amazing chef,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who added that he is a “true friend” who Trump has “nothing but good things to say.”
[images via screengrab]
