H. R. McMaster has floated several Republican senators who he believes former President Donald Trump could pick to serve in his Cabinet should he win a second term.
McMaster made the remarks on Thursday’s episode of Preet Bharara’s podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet.
The retired Army three-star lieutenant general was the second of four national security advisors to serve in the Trump administration. He published a book about his contentious 13 months in the role, called At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, in August.
On Bharara’s podcast, McMaster said that Trump would aim to install loyalists in top positions if he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in November.
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster being sworn in to testify during the hearing on national security and Chinese threats to America held by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on February 28, 2023. McMaster has suggested names that Donald Trump could pick for top-level positions if he wins a second term.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
“I think the president is, like, really distrustful now of people who come in with… kind of standard background. He wants more loyalists, I think,” McMaster said. But he added that there are “still a lot of people” who have a good relationship with Trump.
He went on to suggest that Trump could find roles in his Cabinet for close allies, including Senators Tom Cotton and Bill Hagerty. Senator Ted Cruz could be chosen as attorney general, he said.
“If you want to throw out some names, I mean, Tom Cotton for example,” he said.
After Bharara suggested that Senators Josh Hawley and Mike Lee could also be contenders, McMaster added: “How about Bill Hagerty, you know? How about, how about [Senator Dan] Sullivan in energy? I don’t think, I think we should be happy. Wouldn’t you be happy if Ted Cruz was attorney general?”
Cabinet members and other high-ranking positions in the federal government require confirmation by the Senate. McMaster went on to say he was more worried about roles that are not confirmed by the Senate.
“What I’m saying is, I am not as worried about confirmed positions as maybe unconfirmed positions,” he said.
Newsweek contacted McMaster for comment via an email to the Hoover Institution, where he is a senior fellow. The Trump campaign was contacted for comment via email.
McMaster also spoke of how he did not regret serving as national security advisor in the Trump administration, but indicated that he would not accept a role in a second Trump term.
“I got to work, Preet, with some fantastic people, I mean, across the departments and agencies and on the NSC staff, and, you know, members of the White House staff too,” he said.
“I consider it, even looking back on it, a great privilege to have done it… I told President Trump, and at the end of the book, he calls me and tells me he misses me. I said, ‘Hey, thanks again for the opportunity.’ If I went back to February of 2017 I would do it again… I would do it over again, but I wouldn’t do it again today.”
