Trump’s New National Security Team Promotes Ex-Navarro Aide

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser has again turned to his Asia team to fill his senior ranks.

Robert O’Brien has appointed Alex Gray, formerly the National Security Council’s Oceania & Indo-Pacific security director, to be a senior adviser, according to three people familiar with the plan. An NSC spokesman declined to comment.

Gray previously worked as a deputy for Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade and manufacturing adviser who has repeatedly warned about the need to re-balance the U.S. relationship with China.

In 2016, Gray and Navarro published an article in Foreign Policy outlining Trump’s “peace through strength vision for the Asia-Pacific,” pledging to rewrite ties. The piece warned of Chinese aggression in Asia, and partly blamed the Obama administration for facilitating it through inaction.

“The United States has tremendous opportunities to reclaim its geostrategic position in Asia,” they wrote, adding: “The White House will require a leader who understands the challenges we face while boldly seizing openings to further our interests.”

Earlier: Trump Picks North Korea-China Aide Pottinger as NSC Deputy

Gray’s appointment follows that of Matt Pottinger, who is now deputy national security adviser after serving previously as the NSC’s senior director for Asia.

Pottinger, a former journalist and Marine who joined Trump’s National Security Council in 2017 and later became senior director for Asia, has been deeply involved in U.S. talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, and helped to plan Trump’s meetings with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

O’Brien, the president’s former top hostage negotiator at the White House, became national security adviser last month after the ouster of John Bolton.

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, John Harney

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