Craig Deare complained in particular that senior national security aides do not have access to Donald Trump. | Getty White House dismisses NSC aide after harsh criticism of Trump Official complained about the president at a closed-door think tank gathering.

The White House abruptly dismissed a senior National Security Council aide on Friday after receiving reports that he had publicly laced into the president and his senior aides, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump, at an event hosted by a Washington think tank.

The aide, Craig Deare, was serving as the NSC's senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Earlier in the week, at a private, off-the-record roundtable hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center for a group of about two dozen scholars, Deare harshly criticized the president and his chief strategist Steve Bannon and railed against the dysfunction paralyzing the Trump White House, according to a source familiar with the situation.


He complained in particular that senior national security aides do not have access to the president — and gave a detailed and embarrassing readout of Trump's call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Deare did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the National Security Council said the White House does not discuss personnel issues.

Deare was a political appointee who came to the NSC, after Trump's inauguration, from National Defense University, where he had served as dean of administration.

His departure comes amid broader turmoil at the NSC. Trump dismissed his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in the wake of revelations that he misled the vice president about the nature of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The president is interviewing candidates for his replacement this weekend at Mar-a-Lago after his first choice, retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, declined the offer.