NSA HR McMaster departs from White House: A look at President Trump's previous manoeuvre

Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump took to Twitter yet again on Thursday and announced that John Bolton would replace HR McMaster as the country’s national security advisor (NSA).

Bolton will take over officially from McMaster on April 9, Trump added.

President Trump has said that the outgoing NSA "has done an outstanding job and will always remain his friend".

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018

The 69-year-old George Bush-era defence official has a history of taking hardline positions on foreign policy. He has had an active presence on television and Twitter. His recent tweets give some insight on what he will bring to Trump's White House.

"It’s important to stand behind our South Korean allies, but if we pay heed to the lessons of history, talking to #NorthKorea would be fruitless," he recently tweeted.

Earlier this month, Trump had replaced his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

In little over a year of Trump’s presidency, more than a dozen key members of his administration have either been sacked or have resigned from their posts.

According to a report by Vox, the number of exits the Trump administration has seen in its first year is higher than the past five administrations put together.

The Trump administration’s staff turnover during the period is around 34 percent. The second-highest first-year turnover was under President Ronald Regan at 17 percent.

Here are some of the notable exits from the White House under Trump:

Porter resigned after being accused of domestic violence by his two ex-wives. Porter has denied the allegations.

White House officials initially defended him, with chief of staff John Kelly calling him a “man of true integrity and honour.”

Similar to Tillerson’s exit, Trump announced on Twitter that he was replacing Reince Priebus as the Chief of Staff with John Kelly.

News reports citing White House officials suggest that Trump told Priebus he wanted to make a change two weeks before he was fired.

Scaramucci officially served as the White House Director of Communications for just six days before being fired.

A week after Scaramucci was hired, The New Yorker published a detailed account of an expletive-ridden phone conversation one of their reporters had with him.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn't want to burden Gen. Kelly."

Spicer took over as the Press Secretary in January 2017. Spicer stepped down, just a few hours after Anthony Scaramucci was brought on board the Trump administration as communications director.

FBI Director James Comey was sacked by Donald Trump, who the White House initially said, was acting on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They also criticised Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton emails investigation.

However, President Trump later said that it was his decision alone and that he was thinking about the FBI's Russian election interference probe when he resolved to fire Comey.

Flynn was part of Trump’s campaign before becoming the National Security Adviser (NSA). He was at the White House for around three week before he resigned when it was learnt that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of meetings he had with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak prior to President Trump's inauguration.

Hicks is one of Donald Trump's longest-serving aide. While her resignation was announced on February 28, it will only go into effect a few weeks later.

Hicks’ resignation came a day after she was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee during which she said she had occasionally lied on Trump's behalf, according to news reports.

Bannon was earlier Chief Executive Officer of Trump’s election campaign. Upon Trump's election, Bannon was appointed as the President’s chief strategist, which was met with backlash.

Bannon has been the executive chairman of Breitbart News magazine which published articles promoting an alt-right movement.

News reports suggest that Bannon was fired because Trump was getting increasingly frustrated with him.

Tillerson’s replacement as the Secretary of State was announced by Trump on Twitter. Tillerson’s aide claimed that the Tillerson was not informed earlier and was unaware of the move.

Trump and Tillerson had differences over various diplomatic issues, with the international nuclear accord with Iran being biggest bone of contention between them. Even on the issue of North Korea, the two had multiple miscommunications.