WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser - the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump’s selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump’s team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria’s government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn’t formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the “atrocious” chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn’t speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

“I think he’s going to be a fantastic representative of our team,” Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: “Interesting day.”

Inevitably, Bolton’s past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on “Fox and Friends” - he said he would have opposed an authorization to use force in Syria.

“The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president’s,” Sanders replied.

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton’s influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall as the new national security adviser takes charge.

In Trump’s reality-show-infused White House, it’s become a truism that when a powerful aide departs - like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary - others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn’t suffer fools quietly.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, the White House said National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton would be departing, a high-profile public face of national security team. The White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, but his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

Although it’s unclear whether Bolton will “clean house,” two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, said individuals familiar with those conversations who weren’t authorized to discuss them and requested anonymity.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as “to help the president get his program implemented.” Bolton has been “preparing his whole life to be in this job,” Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book “Surrender is Not an Option,” Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

“Being on the White House staff was fun,” Bolton wrote. “But I wanted ‘line’ responsibility - to manage something and to change it, not simply to be ‘staff,’ even at the White House.”

Bolton’s start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster’s exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP and Catherine Lucey at http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey</s>The spokesman for President Donald Trump’s National Security Council plans to leave the administration, the White House said on Sunday, a day before Trump’s third national security adviser formally takes up his post.

Michael Anton, who also worked for former President George W. Bush’s National Security Council and is a former BlackRock managing director, is leaving after serving under Trump for more than a year, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

“Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with,” Sanderssaid. “He will be greatly missed.”

Trump telephoned Anton on Sunday to thank him for his service, a White House official said.

The White House did not offer a reason for Anton’s departure or say exactly when he would leave. The departure is the latest in a string of staff changes in the administration.

Anton told Politico he planned to join Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington as a writer and lecturer. Anton did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Anton published a widely read essay in conservative circles before the 2016 election under a pseudonym that compared the presidential race to the doomed September 11, 2001, flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers charged the cockpit.

“2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die,” he wrote. “To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.”

Last month, Trump said he was replacing HR McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran. A week earlier, Trump fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and nominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.

McMaster replaced Michael Flynn, who resigned soon after Trump took office following disclosures he had discussed US sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.</s>Bolton takes the helm on national security at time of tumult

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump's national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump's selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump's team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria's government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn't formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the "atrocious" chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn't speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

"I think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team," Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: "Interesting day."

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton's influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall in the Bolton era.

In Trump's reality-show-infused White House, it's become a truism that when a powerful aide departs — like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary — others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn't suffer fools quietly.

Although it's unclear whether Bolton will "clean house," two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

Before starting the job, Bolton provided the White House with names of staffers he wanted to bring in, but the list consisted mainly of people associated with his political action committee, The John Bolton Super PAC, one individual with knowledge of the list said. All of the individuals weren't authorized to discuss internal White House deliberations and requested anonymity.

It was unclear whether any of Bolton's favored candidates were being hired. In recent months, Trump's administration has increasingly struggled to find qualified candidates who are eligible for high-level security clearance, are willing to join the White House and haven't been disqualified for other reasons, such as past public criticism of Trump.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, Michael Anton, the National Security Council's spokesman and a public face for the administration, resigned. Although the White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, two people familiar with the situation said he resigned after learning he would be fired, and his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, individuals familiar with those conversations said.

Yet inevitably, Bolton's past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on "Fox and Friends" — he said he would have opposed a congressional vote to use military force in Syria.

"The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president's," Sanders replied.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as "to help the president get his program implemented." Bolton has been "preparing his whole life to be in this job," Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book "Surrender is Not an Option," Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

"Being on the White House staff was fun," Bolton wrote. "But I wanted 'line' responsibility — to manage something and to change it, not simply to be 'staff,' even at the White House."

Bolton's start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump's second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster's exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP and Catherine Lucey at http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey</s>Bolton takes the helm on national security at time of tumult

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump's national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump's selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump's team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria's government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn't formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the "atrocious" chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn't speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

"I think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team," Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: "Interesting day."

Inevitably, Bolton's past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on "Fox and Friends" — he said he would have opposed an authorization to use force in Syria.

"The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president's," Sanders replied.

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton's influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall as the new national security adviser takes charge.

In Trump's reality-show-infused White House, it's become a truism that when a powerful aide departs — like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary — others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn't suffer fools quietly.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, the White House said National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton would be departing, a high-profile public face of national security team. The White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, but his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

Although it's unclear whether Bolton will "clean house," two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, said individuals familiar with those conversations who weren't authorized to discuss them and requested anonymity.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as "to help the president get his program implemented." Bolton has been "preparing his whole life to be in this job," Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book "Surrender is Not an Option," Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

"Being on the White House staff was fun," Bolton wrote. "But I wanted 'line' responsibility — to manage something and to change it, not simply to be 'staff,' even at the White House."

Bolton's start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump's second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster's exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP and Catherine Lucey at http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey</s>WASHINGTON: The spokesman for President Donald Trump's National Security Council plans to leave the administration, the White House said on Sunday, a day before Trump's third national security adviser formally takes up his post.

Michael Anton, who also worked for former President George W. Bush's National Security Council and is a former BlackRock managing director, is leaving after serving under Trump for more than a year, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with," Sanders said. "He will be greatly missed."

Trump telephoned Anton on Sunday to thank him for his service, a White House official said.

The White House did not offer a reason for Anton's departure or say exactly when he would leave. The departure is the latest in a string of staff changes in the administration.

Anton told Politico he planned to join Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington as a writer and lecturer. Anton did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Anton published a widely read essay in conservative circles before the 2016 election under a pseudonym that compared the presidential race to the doomed Sept. 11, 2001, flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers charged the cockpit.

"2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die," he wrote. "To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances."

Last month, Trump said he was replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran. A week earlier, Trump fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and nominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.

McMaster replaced Michael Flynn, who resigned soon after Trump took office following disclosures he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.</s>The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump's national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump's selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump's team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria's government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn't formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the "atrocious" chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn't speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

"I think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team," Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: "Interesting day."

Inevitably, Bolton's past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on Fox and Friends — he said he would have opposed an authorization to use force in Syria.

"The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president's," Sanders replied.

Next to go?

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton's influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall as the new national security adviser takes charge.

In Trump's reality-show-infused White House, it's become a truism that when a powerful aide departs — like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary — others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn't suffer fools quietly.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, the White House said National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton would be departing, a high-profile public face of national security team. The White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, but his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

Although it's unclear whether Bolton will "clean house," two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, said individuals familiar with those conversations who weren't authorized to discuss them and requested anonymity.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as "to help the president get his program implemented." Bolton has been "preparing his whole life to be in this job," Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book Surrender is Not an Option, Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

"Being on the White House staff was fun," Bolton wrote. "But I wanted 'line' responsibility — to manage something and to change it, not simply to be 'staff,' even at the White House."

Bolton's start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump's second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster's exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.</s>US President Donald Trump’s third national security adviser John Bolton started work on Monday, a day after the White House announced the abrupt departure of Michael Anton as the top spokesperson of the national security council.

Bolton tweeted on Sunday: “Tomorrow I look forward to starting as National Security Advisor, and working with President Trump and his team to keep America safe and secure in these challenging times.”

Anton is leaving to join a conservative school’s Washington chapter as a writer and lecturer. It was not immediately known if his departure was linked to Bolton taking charge — some reports said Bolton may order a massive shake-up of the national security council staff to get rid of political appointees.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, “Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with — not to mention an amazing chef. He has been more than a colleague, he is a true friend.”

Trump had not remarked on his departure at the time of going to print.

Anton told Politico news site: “I will be forever grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to serve my country and implement his agenda.”

Anton was known for a famous piece he wrote in the run up to the 2016 election, in which he had rallied conservatives by arguing that “a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian roulette with a semi-auto”, while with a Trump presidency “at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances”.

Bolton’s appointment, announced by Trump on Twitter in March, came amidst a massive shake up of his national security team. The former US ambassador to the UN replaced HR McMaster shortly after CIA director Mike Pompeo was moved to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and Gina Haspel was moved up the CIA ladder to make her the first woman to head the spy agency.

Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, joins the administration at a critical time as Trump struggles to deal with Syria, from where he wants to withdraw US troops. But on Sunday, he threatened to make “Animal Assad” pay a “big price” for using chemical weapons.

Also on the table is the upcoming talks with Kim Jong Un, and Bolton will be watched closely as he has long advocated a military solution in dealing with North Korea.

Bolton is also very hawkish on Iran, and he and Trump may look to tear up or renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal signed by former President Barack Obama and other western powers with Tehran to stop its nuclear weapons programme.</s>(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward. The White House staff is on edge, unsure who will be fired next, and when. And the national security team is holding its breath to see whether their new leader will be a shock to the system.

Enter John Bolton, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months. Trump’s selection of Bolton last month set off a guessing game in Washington as to just how much of an imprint his take-no-prisoners approach to foreign policy will have on Trump’s team, already beleaguered and exhausted after a tumultuous first year.

If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list has awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria’s government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.

Although Bolton didn’t formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.

And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the “atrocious” chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn’t speak, but was seated prominently behind Trump as reporters were briefly allowed into the meeting.

“I think he’s going to be a fantastic representative of our team,” Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: “Interesting day.”

Apprehension outside the White House about Bolton’s influence has been matched by hand-wringing in the West Wing about whose fortunes will rise and fall in the Bolton era.

In Trump’s reality-show-infused White House, it’s become a truism that when a powerful aide departs — like the chief of staff, national security adviser or a Cabinet secretary — others who were considered aligned with that aide are often the next to go. There have been many such shake-ups, even in just the past few weeks. And Bolton, in his former jobs at the U.N. and at the State Department, developed a reputation as someone who doesn’t suffer fools quietly.

Although it’s unclear whether Bolton will “clean house,” two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said that the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the NSC that handles the Middle East. That comes as Trump prepares for a key decision next month on whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 accord that Bolton has long derided.

Before starting the job, Bolton provided the White House with names of staffers he wanted to bring in, but the list consisted mainly of people associated with his political action committee, The John Bolton Super PAC, one individual with knowledge of the list said. All of the individuals weren’t authorized to discuss internal White House deliberations and requested anonymity.

It was unclear whether any of Bolton’s favored candidates were being hired. In recent months, Trump’s administration has increasingly struggled to find qualified candidates who are eligible for high-level security clearance, are willing to join the White House and haven’t been disqualified for other reasons, such as past public criticism of Trump.

Even before Bolton started, rumors were circulating about potential exits on the national security team. The night before Bolton started, Michael Anton, the National Security Council’s spokesman and a public face for the administration, resigned. Although the White House said Trump thanked Anton for his service, two people familiar with the situation said he resigned after learning he would be fired, and his departure marked another moment of upheaval in an administration marked by months of in-fighting and high-level departures.

In the weeks since being named to the post, Bolton has quietly sought to calm concerns that he would push a more militaristic, hawkish approach on the president, considering his previously expressed support for pre-emptive military action against North Korea and regime change in Iran.

Although he stayed out of the public eye, showing deference to outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Bolton privately told some foreign embassies and influential foreign policy experts that he planned to approach the job more like a traffic cop, guiding a decision-making process in which the president can hear competing views, individuals familiar with those conversations said.

Yet inevitably, Bolton’s past statements in public jobs and as a Fox News commentator follow him into the job. At the White House press briefing Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about a comment Bolton made in 2013 on “Fox and Friends” — he said he would have opposed a congressional vote to use military force in Syria.

“The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president’s,” Sanders replied.

Frank Gaffney, a longtime Bolton associate and former Reagan administration official who runs the far-right think tank Center for Security Policy, said Bolton views his role as “to help the president get his program implemented.” Bolton has been “preparing his whole life to be in this job,” Gaffney said.

Yet in his 2007 book “Surrender is Not an Option,” Bolton reflected on his decision to take a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated rather than work at the White House, out of concern his own voice would not be heard.

“Being on the White House staff was fun,” Bolton wrote. “But I wanted ‘line’ responsibility — to manage something and to change it, not simply to be ‘staff,’ even at the White House.”

Bolton’s start comes after the tortured exit for McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, a three-star general who never developed a strong personal bond with the president. While the White House said McMaster’s exit had been under discussion for some time and stressed it was not due to any one incident, it came after months of speculation about his future in the administration.</s>Washington: National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Michael Anton is planning to depart US President Donald Trump's administration, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has announced.

"Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I've ever worked with—not to mention an amazing chef," Sanders said Sunday.

"He has been more than a colleague, he is a true friend. Every day I got to work with Michael was a good day, and he will be greatly missed."

Anton's departure comes amid a series of changes at the National Security Council, including former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton taking the helm on Monday after HR McMaster stepped down as Trump's top National Security Adviser (NSA), reports CNN.

Anton was brought into the NSC by Michael Flynn, Trump's first NSA, who plead guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last year.

Trump called Anton on Sunday and thanked him for his service, a White House official said.

"He said he is a great guy and we will all miss him," the official added.

According to sources, Anton was well liked by his White House colleagues and known as the rare conservative intellectual that joined Trump's administration, reports CNN.

Months before the 2016 election, Anton—reportedly writing under the name Publius Decius Mus—wrote "The Flight 93 Election", an article that praised Trump's campaign and argued that a Clinton presidency "is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto".

"With Trump," he wrote, "at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances."</s>WASHINGTON: The spokesman for President Donald Trump's National Security Council plans to leave the administration, the White House said on Sunday, a day before Trump's third national security adviser formally takes up his post.

Michael Anton, who also worked for former President George W. Bush's National Security Council and is a former BlackRock managing director, is leaving after serving under Trump for more than a year, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with," Sanders said. "He will be greatly missed."

Trump telephoned Anton on Sunday to thank him for his service, a White House official said.

The White House did not offer a reason for Anton's departure or say exactly when he would leave. The departure is the latest in a string of staff changes in the administration.

Anton told Politico he planned to join Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington as a writer and lecturer. Anton did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Anton published a widely read essay in conservative circles before the 2016 election under a pseudonym that compared the presidential race to the doomed Sept. 11, 2001, flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers charged the cockpit.

"2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die," he wrote. "To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances."

Last month, Trump said he was replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran. A week earlier, Trump fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and nominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.

McMaster replaced Michael Flynn, who resigned soon after Trump took office following disclosures he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces the departure of National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton.