Matthew Pottinger Explained

Matt Pottinger
Office:32nd United States Principal Deputy National Security Advisor
President:Donald Trump
Term Start:September 22, 2019
Term End:January 7, 2021
Predecessor:Charles Kupperman
Successor:Jonathan Finer
Birth Name:Matthew Forbes Pottinger
Birth Date:[1]
Father:John Stanley Pottinger
Children:2
Education:University of Massachusetts, Amherst (BA)
Allegiance: United States
Serviceyears:2005–2010 (active)
2010–present (reserve)
Rank:Lieutenant Colonel
Battles:Iraq War
War in Afghanistan
Mawards:Bronze Star
Combat Action Ribbon
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Module:
Child:yes
C:博明
P:Bó Míng

Matthew Forbes Pottinger (born 1973) is an American former journalist and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as the United States deputy national security advisor from September 22, 2019 to January 7, 2021.[2] Previously Asia director on the National Security Council since 2017, his tenure was unusual among senior aides serving under President Trump for its length, given an administration marked by high turnover.[3] Pottinger worked to develop the Trump administration's policies towards China.[4] [5]

Pottinger resigned in the afternoon of January 6, in response to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. He left the White House the following morning.[6]

Pottinger currently serves as Chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).[7]

Early life and education

Pottinger is the son of author and former Department of Justice official J. Stanley Pottinger. He was educated at Milton Academy and was a schoolmate and childhood friend of John Avlon.[8] [9] [10] Pottinger graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies and is fluent in Mandarin.[11]

Career

Journalism

Before he joined the United States Marine Corps, Pottinger worked as a journalist for Reuters between 1998 and 2001. Then he moved to The Wall Street Journal until his retirement from journalism in 2005. For four years, he was a regular guest on the John Batchelor Show radio program. His stories won awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia. He covered a variety of topics, including the SARS epidemic and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; in the latter assignment, he met United States Marines and was inspired by their courage.[12] He spent seven years reporting in China.[13] [14]

Military career

Pottinger's career switch was motivated by his experience in China and the Iraq War. By 2004, Pottinger had "sort of a sense of unease that China was not really going to converge with the more liberal order." He believed that when it was powerful enough, China would "influence the world on its own terms, on the terms of the ruling party." As he watched the first phase of Iraq War unfold from a distant location in China, he was a bit troubled that "as a nation, the administration, the Congress and to a great extent the press as well had misjudged the nature of conflict." China's rise and the Iraq War had made him realize that democracy is "not inevitable and it shouldn't be taken for granted but it is a form of government very much worth fighting for."[15]

In September 2005, Pottinger joined the Marine Corps and served as a military intelligence officer. He was over-aged and out of shape when he joined. To meet the physical qualifications, he worked out with a Marine officer who was living in Beijing.[16] He served three deployments: one (together with Mike Gallagher) in Iraq from April to November 2007, and two in Afghanistan from November 2008 to May 2009 and July 2009 to May 2010.[17] On his second tour in Afghanistan, he met U.S. Army General Michael T. Flynn, with whom he co-wrote a report.[18] The report, published in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security, was titled .[19] After he left active service, Pottinger worked in New York City, including for the hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management.

Politics

A 2018 Politico profile described Pottinger as "a fairly typical conservative internationalist" who "has never been a Trump-style #MAGA conservative" and who donated to both Democrats and Republicans. In 2017, he was hired as a member of the U.S. National Security Council of the administration of Donald Trump.[20] [21] [22] Michael Flynn, whom Pottinger had worked for in the military, made him the NSC's Asia director, and he remained in his position under H. R. McMaster and John Bolton.

In 2018, after a proposed summit with North Korea had been cancelled,[23] The New York Times reported that "a senior White House official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed."[24] [25] The President subsequently alleged that the New York Times had made up the existence of the unnamed White House official;[26] on Twitter, journalist Yashar Ali later posted audio of Pottinger giving the officially organized background briefing cited by the Times,[27] in which, without actually using the word "impossible", he responded to a reporter's question about the feasibility of the originally scheduled date by saying "We've lost quite a bit of time that we would need" and "June 12th is in ten minutes."[28] [29]

In his NSC position, Pottinger advocated a tough stance on China that combined trade policy with national security.[29] [30] In September 2019, newly installed National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien named Pottinger Deputy National Security Advisor.[31]

Because of his contacts in China, he was an early voice in the Trump administration pushing for more COVID-19 precautions and called for travel ban with China. On January 28, Pottinger met with President Trump and told him that some people in China were testing positive for COVID-19 with no symptoms, which was later confirmed by a NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) article.[32] [33]

In May 2020, he gave a speech in Mandarin regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.[34] During a virtual conversation hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation on September 30, 2020, Pottinger was asked about the national security implication of Chinese students in the United States. In response, he said "the great majority are people that we're glad to have here and many will stay here and start great businesses." He said it is that one percent of Chinese students that are under contract and have an obligation to bring back everything they know to serve the state back in China.[35]

He was sanctioned by China, in January 2021, alongside 28 other Trump administration officials for alleged violations of China’s sovereignty.[36] President Biden's National Security Council called the sanctions "unproductive and cynical."[37]

Pottinger resigned on January 6, 2021, following the U.S. Capitol attack in which supporters of President Donald Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol building to halt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's lawful electoral college victory.[6] [38]

Pottinger joined the Hoover Institution as a distinguished fellow and is a participant on its "China's Global Sharp Power Project" research team.[39] He serves as chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' China Program.[40]

Personal life

In 2014, Pottinger married Dr. Yen Duong, a virologist who immigrated to the United States as a child after she and her family fled Vietnam following the Vietnam War. They have two children and live in Utah.[41]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mangling May Fourth 2020 in Washington . China Heritage . May 15, 2020. December 6, 2021 .
  2. News: Trump's top adviser on Asia to serve as deputy national security adviser . Samuels . Brett . September 22, 2019 . The Hill . October 29, 2019 . en . September 27, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190927012728/https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/462544-trumps-top-adviser-on-asia-to-serve-as-deputy-national-security . live .
  3. News: Lucey . Catherine . Day . Chad . Trump Has Seen High Turnover Among Top White House Aides . December 4, 2020 . Wall Street Journal . June 14, 2019.
  4. News: Nakashima. Ellen. Nakamura. David. Leonnig. Carol. April 29, 2020. Matthew Pottinger faced Communist China's intimidation as a reporter. He's now at the White House shaping Trump's hard line policy toward Beijing. The Washington Post. December 4, 2020.
  5. News: Magnier . Mark . Trump adviser Matthew Pottinger takes soft approach to promoting democracy in China on May Fourth Movement anniversary . December 4, 2020 . South China Morning Post . May 5, 2020.
  6. News: The siege . Axios . January 21, 2021 . Jonathan Swan . Zachary Basu.
  7. Web site: Matt Pottinger . 2023-07-01 . FDD . en.
  8. Web site: Matt Pottinger: Former Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow . May 8, 2017 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20170509091745/http://www.cfr.org/staff/b15886 . May 9, 2017 . dead .
  9. News: Gen Xer Joins the U.S. Marines. John. Avlon. December 27, 2005. May 23, 2017. The New York Sun. May 9, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200509034214/https://www.nysun.com/opinion/gen-xer-joins-the-usmarines/24995/. live.
  10. News: Captain Matthew Pottinger '91 Entreats Students Toward a Life of Service as the 2010 Veterans' Day Speaker. June 8, 2017. Milton Academy. April 16, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190416044041/https://www.milton.edu/captain-matthew-pottinger-91-entreats-students-toward-a-life-of-service-as-the-2010-veterans-day-speaker/. live.
  11. News: Trump taps Matt Pottinger to oversee Asian affairs. January 6, 2017. May 8, 2017. Korea JoongAng Daily. https://web.archive.org/web/20170131023403/http://mengnews.joins.com/view.aspx?aId=3028322. January 31, 2017. dead.
  12. News: Meet Captain Matt Pottinger. April 5, 2011. May 8, 2017. The Atlantic. May 7, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200507121938/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/04/meet-captain-matt-pottinger-united-states-marine-corps/236825/. live.
  13. Web site: Reporter Moved to Become a U.S. Marine. January 1, 2006. May 8, 2017. ABC News. May 27, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180527151221/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/US/story?id=1461359. live.
  14. News: Mightier Than the Pen. Matt. Pottinger. December 15, 2005. May 8, 2017. The Wall Street Journal. May 22, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200522071944/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113461636659623128. live.
  15. Web site: A VIRTUAL CONVERSATION WITH DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR MATT POTTINGER. October 17, 2020. YouTube. en.
  16. News: A Veteran and China Hand Advises Trump for Xi's Visit. April 4, 2017. May 8, 2017. The New York Times. May 12, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200512112257/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/world/asia/matthew-pottinger-trump-china.html. live.
  17. News: How bin Laden Catapulted One Man Into War. May 3, 2011. May 8, 2017. The Wall Street Journal. April 15, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190415233919/https://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2011/05/03/how-bin-laden-catapulted-one-man-into-war/. live.
  18. Michael Flynn, General Chaos. February 27, 2017. May 8, 2017. The New Yorker. May 8, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200508065808/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/michael-flynn-general-chaos. live.
  19. Web site: Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan . Center for a New American Security . January 2010 . August 11, 2015 . Michael T. Flynn . Michael T. Flynn . Captain Matt Pottinger . Paul D. Batchelor . November 19, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161119181812/https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.cnas.org/documents/AfghanIntel_Flynn_Jan2010_code507_voices.pdf . live .
  20. News: Trump could make Obama's pivot to Asia a reality. January 8, 2017. May 8, 2017. The Washington Post. November 3, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201103123623/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-could-make-obamas-pivot-to-asia-a-reality/2017/01/08/a2f8313a-d441-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html. live.
  21. News: Mattis clashing with Trump transition team over Pentagon staffing. January 6, 2017. May 8, 2017. The Washington Post. May 4, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170504044613/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/. live.
  22. News: Flynn is creating the most military-heavy National Security Council of the modern era. January 21, 2017. May 8, 2017. The Washington Post. February 9, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170209101059/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/flynn-is-creating-the-most-military-heavy-national-security-council-of-the-modern-era/2017/01/20/8a45ce9c-df20-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html. live.
  23. Web site: Trump Cancels Summit, North Korean Leaders Leave Door Open For Talks. NPR.org. May 26, 2018. May 24, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200524085151/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614082389/very-perplexed-international-confusion-concern-after-trump-cancels-summit. live.
  24. News: Trump Says North Korea Summit May Be Rescheduled. May 25, 2018. The New York Times. May 26, 2018. en-US. 0362-4331. May 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180526003509/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/asia/trump-summit-north-korea.html. live.
  25. maggieNYT. 1000405829928083456. Haberman. Maggie. Maggie Haberman. Maggie Haberman on Twitter: "Trump told two demonstrable falsehoods this AM, one about his administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant kids inclu infants from their parents, which he tried to claim wasn’t his own policy. The other was falsely claiming his own aide didn’t give a bg briefing." . May 26, 2018. en. May 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180526164033/https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status/1000405829928083456. live.
  26. realDonaldTrump. Trump. Donald John. Donald John Trump. 000396430371106817. Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "The Failing @nytimes quotes “a senior White House official,” who doesn’t exist, as saying “even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.” WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources." . May 26, 2018. en. May 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180526152119/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1000396430371106817. dead.
  27. Web site: Who is Matthew Pottinger? Audio of White House official debunks Trump "phony sources" smear against New York Times . May 26, 2018 . Newsweek . en . May 26, 2018 . May 26, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180526224303/http://www.newsweek.com/who-matt-pottinger-leaked-audio-briefing-945942 . live .
  28. News: Shear. Michael D. May 26, 2018. Trump Falsely Says Times Made Up Source in Report on Korea Summit Meeting. New York Times. June 6, 2018. May 11, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200511065330/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/world/asia/trump-korea-summit-twitter.html. live.
  29. The White House Official Trump Says Doesn't Exist. Michael. Crowley. Politico . September 13, 2019. October 3, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201003154540/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/30/donald-trump-matthew-pottinger-asia-218551. live.
  30. Web site: Trump official Matt Pottinger quotes Confucius, in Chinese, to make point about language and truth. October 2, 2018. SupChina. September 13, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20200519222630/https://supchina.com/2018/10/01/matt-pottinger-quotes-confucius-in-chinese/. May 19, 2020. dead.
  31. News: Trump Picks Matt Pottinger as Deputy National Security Adviser . Salama . Vivian . September 20, 2019 . The Wall Street Journal . October 29, 2019 . en-US . October 29, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191029003028/https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-picks-matt-pottinger-as-deputy-national-security-adviser-11569009233 . live .
  32. Book: Abutaleb, Yasmeen . Nightmare scenario: inside the Trump administration's response to the pandemic that changed history. 2021. Damian Forlaw Paletta. 978-0-06-306605-2 . New York . Harper . 22–34. 1225066847.
  33. Rothe. Camilla. Schunk. Mirjam. Sothmann. Peter. Bretzel. Gisela. Froeschl. Guenter. Wallrauch. Claudia. Zimmer. Thorbjörn. Thiel. Verena. Janke. Christian. Guggemos. Wolfgang. Seilmaier. Michael. March 5, 2020. Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany . New England Journal of Medicine. 382. 10. 970–971. 10.1056/NEJMc2001468. 0028-4793. 7120970. 32003551.
  34. News: Rascoe . Ayesha . May 4, 2020 . White House Official Delivers Speech In Mandarin To Send Coronavirus Message . en . NPR . October 19, 2020.
  35. Web site: September 30, 2020. A VIRTUAL CONVERSATION WITH DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR MATT POTTINGER. YouTube.
  36. Web site: Treisman . Rachel . China Slaps Sanctions On 28 Trump Administration Officials, Including Mike Pompeo . npr . 27 July 2022 . 20 Jan 2021.
  37. News: Biden administration calls China sanctions on Trump officials 'unproductive and cynical'. 21 January 2021 . Reuters. January 21, 2021 . Martina . Michael .
  38. Web site: Trump's deputy national security adviser resigns as other top officials consider quitting over Capitol riot. CNN. January 6, 2021. January 7, 2021.
  39. Web site: Matt Pottinger, Distinguished Visiting Fellow . Hoover Institute . June 25, 2021.
  40. Web site: 2021-07-13 . FDD MATTHEW POTTINGER NAMED CHAIRMAN OF CHINA PROGRAM AT FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES . 2022-10-11 . FDD . en.
  41. The Plague Year . December 28, 2020 . Lawrence Wright . The New Yorker .

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