National Security Advisor (United States)

The **National Security Advisor**, officially known as the **Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs**, serves as the top advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues. This person serves on the National Security Council within the President's Executive Office.

The National Security Advisor is appointed by the President, and does not have to be approved by the United States Senate. The current acting National Security Advisor is U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

## List of National Security Advisors

|rowspan="2"|No.|rowspan="2"|Portrait|rowspan="2"|Name|colspan="3"|Term of office|rowspan="2"|President(s) served under||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1||Robert Cutler (1895–1974)|March 23, 1953|April 2, 1955|740|rowspan="5"|Dwight D. Eisenhower||||||
|2||Dillon Anderson (1906–1974)|April 2, 1955|September 1, 1956|519||||||||
|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|_Acting_|bgcolor=#E6E6AA||bgcolor=#E6E6AA|William Harding Jackson (1901–1971)|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|September 1, 1956|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|January 7, 1957|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|128||
|3||Robert Cutler (1895–1974)|January 7, 1957|June 24, 1958|533||||||||
|4||Gordon Gray (1909–1982)|June 24, 1958|January 13, 1961|934||||||||
|rowspan="2"|5|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|McGeorge Bundy (1919–1996)|rowspan="2"|January 20, 1961|rowspan="2"|February 28, 1966|rowspan="2"|1865|John F. Kennedy|
|rowspan="2"|Lyndon B. Johnson||||||||||||
|6||Walt Whitman Rostow (1916–2003)|April 1, 1966|January 20, 1969|1025||||||||
|rowspan="2"|7|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Henry Kissinger (1923–2023)|rowspan="2"|January 20, 1969|rowspan="2"|November 3, 1975|rowspan="2"|2478|Richard Nixon|
|rowspan="2"|Gerald Ford||||||||||||
|8||Brent Scowcroft (1925–2020)|November 3, 1975 (first appointment)|January 20, 1977|444||||||||
|9||Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928–2017)|January 20, 1977|January 20, 1981|1461|Jimmy Carter|||||||
|10||Richard V. Allen (1936–2024)|January 21, 1981|January 4, 1982|348|rowspan="7"|Ronald Reagan||||||
|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|_Acting_|bgcolor=#E6E6AA||bgcolor=#E6E6AA|James W. Nance (1921–1999)|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|November 30, 1981|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|January 4, 1982|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|37||
|11||William P. Clark, Jr. (1931–2013)|January 4, 1982|October 17, 1983|651||||||||
|12||Robert McFarlane (1937–2022)|October 17, 1983|December 4, 1985|779||||||||
|13||John Poindexter (1936–)|December 4, 1985|November 25, 1986|356||||||||
|14||Frank Carlucci (1930–2018)|December 2, 1986|November 23, 1987|356||||||||
|15||Colin Powell (1937–2021)|November 23, 1987|January 20, 1989|424||||||||
|16||Brent Scowcroft (1925–2020)|January 20, 1989 (second appointment)|January 20, 1993|1461|George H. W. Bush|||||||
|17||Anthony Lake (1939–)|January 20, 1993|March 14, 1997|1514|rowspan="2"|Bill Clinton||||||
|18||Sandy Berger (1945–2015)|March 14, 1997|January 20, 2001|1408||||||||
|19||Condoleezza Rice (1954–)|January 22, 2001|January 25, 2005|1464|rowspan="2"|George W. Bush||||||
|20||Stephen Hadley (1947–)|January 26, 2005|January 20, 2009|1455||||||||
|21||James L. Jones (1943–)|January 20, 2009|October 8, 2010|626|rowspan="3"|Barack Obama||||||
|22||Thomas E. Donilon (1955–)|October 8, 2010|July 1, 2013|997||||||||
|23||Susan Rice (1964–)|July 1, 2013|January 20, 2017|1299||||||||
|24||Michael Flynn (1958–)|January 20, 2017|February 13, 2017|24|rowspan="6"|Donald Trump||||||
|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|_Acting_|bgcolor=#E6E6AA||bgcolor=#E6E6AA|Keith Kellogg (1944–)|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|February 13, 2017|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|February 20, 2017|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|7||
|25||H. R. McMaster (1962–)|February 20, 2017|April 9, 2018|||||||||
|26||John Bolton (1948–)|April 9, 2018|September 10, 2019|||||||||
|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|_Acting_|bgcolor=#E6E6AA||bgcolor=#E6E6AA|Charles Kupperman (1950–)|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|September 10, 2019|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|September 18, 2019|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|||
|27||Robert O’Brien (1966–)|September 18, 2019|January 20, 2021|||||||||
|28||Jake Sullivan (1976–)|January 20, 2021|January 20, 2025||Joe Biden|||||||
|29||Mike Waltz (1974–)|January 20, 2025|May 1, 2025||rowspan="2"|Donald Trump||||||
|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|_Acting_|bgcolor=#E6E6AA||bgcolor=#E6E6AA|Marco Rubio (1971–)|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|May 1, 2025|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|Incumbent|bgcolor=#E6E6AA|||
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## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- **insignia**: US-WhiteHouse-Logo.svg
- **image**: Official portrait of Secretary Marco Rubio.jpg
- **incumbent**: Marco Rubio
- **incumbentsince**: May 1, 2025
- **acting**: yes
- **department**: Executive Office of the President
- **member of**: United States National Security Council, National Security Council
Homeland Security Council
- **reports to**: President of the United States
- **appointer**: President of the United States
- **constituting instrument**: National Security Presidential Memorandum
- **first**: Robert Cutler
- **formation**: 1953
- **deputy**: Deputy National Security Advisor