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]
Before he joined the United States Marine Corps, Pottinger worked as a journalist for Reuters between 1998 and 2001.[13][8] Then he moved to The Wall Street Journal until his retirement from journalism in 2005.[8] 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.[13][8] He spent seven years reporting in China.[14][15]
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."[16]
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.[20] In 2017, he was hired as a member of the U.S. National Security Council of the administration of Donald Trump.[21][22][23] 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.[citation needed]
In 2018, after a proposed summit with North Korea had been cancelled,[24]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."[25][26] The President subsequently alleged that the New York Times had made up the existence of the unnamed White House official;[27] on Twitter, journalist Yashar Ali later posted audio of Pottinger giving the officially organized background briefing cited by the Times,[28] 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."[29][20]
In his NSC position, Pottinger advocated a tough stance on China that combined trade policy with national security.[20][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]
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.[4][41]
^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. ISBN978-0-06-306605-2. OCLC1225066847.
