WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named K.T. McFarland, an aide to three Republican White Houses and a frequent Fox News commentator, to the position of deputy national security adviser, as he continues to fill his foreign policy staff with aides who have hard-line views on the fight against terrorism.
Trump also announced his pick for White House counsel, choosing Donald F. McGahn II, a Washington election lawyer who is widely admired among the Republican Party's establishment.
McFarland, like Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the president-elect's choice for national security adviser, has been highly critical of President Barack Obama's approach to combating terrorism, saying he has not acknowledged the threat that global Islamism poses to Western civilization.
McGahn, who spent nearly a decade as the general counsel to the National Republican Congressional Committee, is known for his work from 2008 to 2013 as the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, where he fought to ease many campaign finance restrictions. He served as general counsel for Trump's campaign.
His appointment was praised by Edwin Meese III, an attorney general under Ronald Reagan, who said he would make "an excellent counsel."
The moves came as Trump and his team remain locked in a debate over appointing a secretary of state, the most important foreign policy job in the administration. Aides to Trump have said a decision on that post may not come until next week at the earliest.
The dispute centers on whether Trump should select Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani for the Cabinet position. It remains possible, Trump's advisers said, that the job could go to someone else, like Gen. John F. Kelly, a Marine who led the U.S. Southern Command under Obama.
McFarland, who will not require Senate confirmation, worked for the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. From 1970 to 1976, she was an adviser to Henry A. Kissinger on the National Security Council. She also ran unsuccessfully in a 2006 Republican Senate primary race for the seat held by Hillary Clinton.