Nicole Gaudiano and David Jackson

USA TODAY

President Trump will ask K.T. McFarland to step down as deputy national security adviser and serve instead as ambassador to Singapore, giving National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster a chance to pick his own lieutenant, two administration officials confirmed.

The officials confirmed a report by Bloomberg Politics and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to discuss personnel moves.

There have been questions about the future of McFarland, a former Fox News commentator, since the February dismissal of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, the retired three-star general who hired her.

Flynn resigned after acknowledging he had given “incomplete information” about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December about American sanctions against Russia for hacking Democratic Party officials during the 2016 election.

Trump appointed McMaster, a U.S. Army lieutenant general, as his new national security adviser in February and gave him authority to remake the National Security Council as he saw fit.

That authority led to last week’s removal of senior adviser Steve Bannon from the council's principals committee.

The officials described McFarland's move as a promotion because Singapore is a key U.S. ally. The paperwork on her ambassadorial nomination is still being worked out.