President Trump’s choice for national security adviser has turned down the job offer, according to a report.

Trump asked Vice Adm. Robert Harward earlier in the week to take the post, but he declined, the Financial Times reported (paywall).

The paper said the president is trying to convince him to change his mind.

“Harward is conflicted between the call of duty and the obvious dysfunctionality,” one source with knowledge of the discussion told the paper.

The job is vacant because Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed he had misled members of the administration about conversations he had with a Russian official in December about US sanctions.

The high-profile White House posting is currently being filled on an interim basis by Keith Kellogg.

Harward is close to Defense Secretary James Mattis and served on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration.

One source told the Financial Times that Harward was concerned about whether top advisers to Trump would allow him to put in his own staff at the NSC, since KT McFarland, Flynn’s deputy, had been asked to stay on.