WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been promoted to the post of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
In the post, Needham would serve along with Rubio, who is President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser as well as the top U.S. diplomat.
Needham was chief of staff to Rubio in the U.S. Senate, and before that, served as chief executive of Heritage Action for America, a grassroots group dedicated to promoting conservative values and policies.
Needham has been an influential aide to Rubio who has largely kept a low profile but has been front and center on a number of key policy issues such as U.S. interest in Greenland as well as the first direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in decades.
Axios first reported the appointment.
(Reporting by HUmeyra Pamuk in Washington and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Sanjeev Miglani)
