Top National Security Council official fired over memo alleging threats to Trump: report

A top official on the National Security Council (NSC) was fired late last month after he authored a controversial memo alleging that nefarious forces from both inside and outside the government were plotting “political warfare” against President Trump’s agenda.

The Atlantic reported Wednesday that Rich Higgins, who served as the director of strategic planning in the NSC’s strategic planning office, was removed from his post on July 21 for writing the memo, which alleged that leftists, globalists, Islamists and “deep state” actors are engaged in “political warfare” against Trump.

“Through the campaign, candidate Trump tapped into a deep vein of concern among many citizens that America is at risk and slipping away,” the memo reads. “Globalists and Islamists recognize that for their visions to succeed, America, both as an ideal and as a national and political identity, must be destroyed.”

Higgins, whom The Atlantic noted is seen as an ally of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, had only served on the NSC for a couple of months before his ouster.

{mosads}Bannon, the former executive chairman of the far-right Breitbart News, is largely seen as representing the nationalist wing of Trump’s White House staff. He was removed from the NSC in April, shortly after Trump named Army Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser. 

Since taking on the national security adviser role, McMaster has reportedly worked to rid the NSC of political elements. 

Higgins’s memo was reportedly authored in late May and began circulating among people outside the White House associated with Trump’s campaign. 

It isn’t clear how McMaster became aware of the memo’s existence. Higgins was told by deputy national security adviser Ricky Waddell on July 21 that he was being removed from the NSC. 

In the past, Higgins has expressed ideas similar to those in the memo. In an interview with The Daily Caller last year, Higgins alleged that the left and Islamist groups are “weaponizing political correctness” to undermine the United States’ fight against extremists. 

Higgins isn’t the latest Bannon ally to be removed from the council. McMaster fired Derek Harvey, the senior director for the Middle East, last week. 

NSC spokesman Michael Anton declined to comment on Higgins’s removal.