Southampton's KT McFarland Named to Trump Administration

Southampton homeowner and national security analyst KT McFarland was named deputy national security advisor for President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration on Friday, November 25. McFarland has had a long career working for the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and has been a vocal critic of President Obama‘s foreign policy. She’s also praised Trump’s views and advocated for less “politically correct” racial profiling and waterboarding as ways to better combat terrorism.

“I am proud that KT has once again decided to serve our country and join my national security team,” Trump said in a statement. “She has tremendous experience and innate talent that will complement the fantastic team we are assembling, which is crucial because nothing is more important than keeping our people safe.”

Known widely for her more recent work as an analyst for Fox News, McFarland was also principal deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. During that time, in 1985, she received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal—the Defense Department’s highest civilian award. According to the Department of Defense Manual of Military Decorations and Awards, the DDSM is given to “an officer whose direct and individual contributions to national security or defense are recognized as being so exceptional in scope and value as to be equivalent to contributions normally associated with positions encompassing broader responsibilities.”

McFarland is also a member of the Jamestown Foundation—a Washington D.C.-based institute for research and analysis with a mission to educate policy makers and the public about what’s happening in closed, totalitarian societies, such as those behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, and places like North Korea, China, as well as in terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, today.

In 2006, she ran as a Republican in the New York United States Senate election, but failed to unseat Democratic incumbent, and Trump’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, who won easily. During her campaign that August, McFarland’s then 16-year-old daughter Camilla was busted for shoplifting in Southampton. The teen was caught with over $400 of stolen merchandise, including a pair of jeans from Norahs and two bikinis from Flying Point Surf & Sport.

“In asking KT McFarland to become his Deputy National Security Advisor, President-elect Trump has brought to the top ranks of his Administration one of our country’s most experienced, informed, and wise foreign policy and national security experts,” former Senator and 2000 vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman said in a release after the announcement. “She is a woman of honor, compassion, and patriotism.”

At the same time he announced McFarland’s appointment, Trump also named the general counsel for his campaign, Donald McGahn, as White House counsel.