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Matt Pottinger

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American journalist, Marine Corps officer, and former government official (born 1973)
Matt Pottinger
Matt Pottinger in June 2024
32nd United States Principal Deputy National Security Advisor
In office
September 22, 2019 – January 7, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byCharles Kupperman
Succeeded byJonathan Finer
Personal details
BornMatthew Forbes Pottinger
1973 (age 50–51)
Spouse Yen Duong ​(m. 2014)​
Children2
Parent
EducationUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst (BA)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
Years of service2005–2010 (active)
2010–present (reserve)
RankLieutenant Colonel
Battles/warsIraq War
War in Afghanistan
AwardsBronze Star
Combat Action Ribbon
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Chinese name
Chinese博明
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinBó Míng

Matthew Forbes Pottinger (/ˈpɒtɪndʒər/ POT-in-jər; 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. 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. Pottinger worked to develop the Trump administration's policies towards China.

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.

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

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. Pottinger graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies and is fluent in Mandarin.

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. He spent seven years reporting in China.

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."

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. 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. On his second tour in Afghanistan, he met U.S. Army General Michael T. Flynn, with whom he co-wrote a report. The report, published in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security, was titled Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan. 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. 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, 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." The President subsequently alleged that the New York Times had made up the existence of the unnamed White House official; on Twitter, journalist Yashar Ali later posted audio of Pottinger giving the officially organized background briefing cited by the Times, 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."

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

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.

In May 2020, he gave a speech in Mandarin regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.

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

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.

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

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.

Further reading

References

  1. "Mangling May Fourth 2020 in Washington". China Heritage. May 15, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  2. "J. Stanley Pottinger, 84, Dies; Figured Out the Identity of 'Deep Throat'". The New York Times. November 29, 2024. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
  3. Samuels, Brett (September 22, 2019). "Trump's top adviser on Asia to serve as deputy national security adviser". The Hill. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  4. Lucey, Catherine; Day, Chad (June 14, 2019). "Trump Has Seen High Turnover Among Top White House Aides". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  5. ^ 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. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  6. Magnier, Mark (May 5, 2020). "Trump adviser Matthew Pottinger takes soft approach to promoting democracy in China on May Fourth Movement anniversary". South China Morning Post. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  7. ^ Jonathan Swan; Zachary Basu (January 21, 2021). "The siege". Axios.
  8. "Matt Pottinger". FDD. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
  9. ^ "A Veteran and China Hand Advises Trump for Xi's Visit". The New York Times. April 4, 2017. Archived from the original on May 12, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  10. "Matt Pottinger: Former Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow". Council of Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on May 9, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  11. Avlon, John (December 27, 2005). "Gen Xer Joins the U.S. Marines". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  12. "Captain Matthew Pottinger '91 Entreats Students Toward a Life of Service as the 2010 Veterans' Day Speaker". Milton Academy. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  13. "Trump taps Matt Pottinger to oversee Asian affairs". Korea JoongAng Daily. January 6, 2017. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  14. ^ "Meet Captain Matt Pottinger". The Atlantic. April 5, 2011. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  15. "Reporter Moved to Become a U.S. Marine". ABC News. January 1, 2006. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  16. Pottinger, Matt (December 15, 2005). "Mightier Than the Pen". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  17. ^ A VIRTUAL CONVERSATION WITH DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR MATT POTTINGER. Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. September 30, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2024 – via YouTube.
  18. "How bin Laden Catapulted One Man Into War". The Wall Street Journal. May 3, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  19. "Michael Flynn, General Chaos". The New Yorker. February 27, 2017. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  20. Michael T. Flynn; Captain Matt Pottinger; Paul D. Batchelor (January 2010). "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan" (PDF). Center for a New American Security. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  21. ^ Crowley, Michael. "The White House Official Trump Says Doesn't Exist". Politico. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  22. "Trump could make Obama's pivot to Asia a reality". The Washington Post. January 8, 2017. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  23. "Mattis clashing with Trump transition team over Pentagon staffing". The Washington Post. January 6, 2017. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  24. "Flynn is creating the most military-heavy National Security Council of the modern era". The Washington Post. January 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 9, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  25. "Trump Cancels Summit, North Korean Leaders Leave Door Open For Talks". NPR.org. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  26. "Trump Says North Korea Summit May Be Rescheduled". The New York Times. May 25, 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  27. Haberman, Maggie (May 26, 2018). "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."" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018 – via Twitter.
  28. Trump, Donald John (November 5, 2010). "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."" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018 – via Twitter.
  29. "Who is Matthew Pottinger? Audio of White House official debunks Trump "phony sources" smear against New York Times". Newsweek. May 26, 2018. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  30. Shear, Michael D (May 26, 2018). "Trump Falsely Says Times Made Up Source in Report on Korea Summit Meeting". New York Times. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  31. "Trump official Matt Pottinger quotes Confucius, in Chinese, to make point about language and truth". SupChina. October 2, 2018. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  32. Salama, Vivian (September 20, 2019). "Trump Picks Matt Pottinger as Deputy National Security Adviser". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  33. Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Damian Forlaw Paletta (2021). Nightmare scenario: inside the Trump administration's response to the pandemic that changed history. New York: Harper. pp. 22–34. ISBN 978-0-06-306605-2. OCLC 1225066847.
  34. 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. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2001468. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 7120970. PMID 32003551.
  35. Rascoe, Ayesha (May 4, 2020). "White House Official Delivers Speech In Mandarin To Send Coronavirus Message". NPR. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  36. Treisman, Rachel (January 20, 2021). "China Slaps Sanctions On 28 Trump Administration Officials, Including Mike Pompeo". npr. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  37. Martina, Michael (January 21, 2021). "Biden administration calls China sanctions on Trump officials 'unproductive and cynical'". Reuters. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  38. "Trump's deputy national security adviser resigns as other top officials consider quitting over Capitol riot". CNN. January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  39. "Matt Pottinger, Distinguished Visiting Fellow". Hoover Institute. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  40. "FDD | MATTHEW POTTINGER NAMED CHAIRMAN OF CHINA PROGRAM AT FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES". FDD. July 13, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  41. Lawrence Wright (December 28, 2020). "The Plague Year". The New Yorker.

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