Craig Deare, the NSCs senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was dismissed after he publicly mocked Mr Trump at an off-the-record event earlier this week, Politico reports .

A source told Politico Mr Deare criticised the president and his chief strategist and closer adviser Steve Bannon at the Woodrow Wilson Centre think-tank in front of around two dozen scholars.

Mr Deare also complained that senior NSC aides did not have direct lines of communication with the president.

His public criticism also reportedly included an embarrassing readout of Mr Trump's call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mr Pena Nieto announced he would not meet Mr Trump after the US president threatened to cancel a series of upcoming meetings with Mexico if the country did not agree to pay for his promised US-Mexico border wall.