He says he has never voted and went to the White House as a soldier, simply to serve the president. In the US military community, a growing chorus is speaking up against Trump. I just think it’s super important that we bring that attitude to our civic lives and to our communities.” ‘Strategic narcissism’ And become fast friends with the same people. We can fight like hell with each other on the pitch, and then all have a pint afterwards at the party.

“What I love about rugby,” he continues, “is it has some real lessons for us. We can fight like hell with each other on the pitch, and then all have a pint afterwards That interview, shortly after McMaster was fired, rather nonplussed some in a Washington press corps eager to hear him dish the dirt on Trump. McMaster and I have spoken before, about a sport that might be – after his family, the US military and history – the fourth great love of his life. So I recommend that we come together on, you know, basketball courts and rugby pitches, to renew our fellowship with one another and to transcend the vitriol that we see on social media.”įrom an American political figure, mention of rugby might seem rather unusual.

“But more distant from each other psychologically and emotionally than ever before. “I talk about how we’re more connected to each other electronically than ever before,” McMaster says, by phone to New York from Stanford, where he’s now a fellow at the Hoover Institution. Despite his travails, it is not a White House tell-all.īattlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World contains elements of memoir but is more concerned with discussing US foreign policy – on Russia, China, the Middle East, Iran – while lamenting how such foes profit from domestic political division drastically deepened by Trump. Two years later, the retired general has written a book.

Dereliction of Duty by H.R. McMaster