White House's Top Shipbuilding Advisor Departs
Ian Bennitt, the former congressional staffer hand-picked to run the Trump administration's shipbuilding policy push within the National Security Council, has reportedly departed his post amidst an internal shakeup. Reuters first reported the news, along with the departure of NSC chief of staff Brian McCormack, who also served as a senior official in Office of Management and Budget in the first Trump administration.
As an office, NSC has been in the crosshairs of the White House's highest leadership ever since the first Trump administration, distrusted over allegations of "deep state" liberal leanings, slow decision-review processes, and insufficient dedication to executing the president's agenda. The defense policy coordination division has been shrinking for months. In January, days after Trump took office, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz began dismissing NSC staffmembers, starting with those working on Ukraine policy. In mid-May, after Waltz's departure, NSC chief of staff McCormack dismissed 100 more staffers by email.
Like Waltz, McCormack has now departed, as has shipbuilding policy leader Bennitt, according to Reuters. McCormack will reportedly become the next chief of staff for Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Bennitt is said to be headed for the private sector.
Bennitt was the White House's senior advisor on the maritime industrial base, and he headed a team known as the "Office of Maritime and Industrial Capacity" - the first time that a shipbuilding office has been housed within the White House in living memory. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a social media post that Bennitt's departure does not mean the end of the White House's shipbuilding office: instead, it will be taken out of NSC and moved over to the Office of Management and Budget, the powerful decision-making division that writes the annual White House budget proposal.
A replacement senior shipbuilding advisor has not been announced, and it is not immediately clear who will be tasked with shepherding progress on the president's executive order on a shipbuilding industry revival.