Muslim Career Official Quits After 8 Days on Trump's National Security Council
When Rumana Ahmed walked into the White House National Security Council after Donald Trump was inaugurated – wearing her Muslim headscarf — the new staff looked at her with "cold surprise," she wrote in the Atlantic magazine last week.
The piece, "I was a Muslim in Trump’s White House," has made waves. Ahmed won praise on Twitter from former senior Obama administration officials Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes.
Ahmed, a daughter of Bangledeshi immigrants, was promoted to become a career NSC staff member under Obama and decided to stay under Trump.
In the eight days she stayed, the NSC was marginalized from decision-making, she told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Thursday night. Then came the ban on travelers from seven majority Muslim countries, which convinced her, "I have to get out of here."
"Everything that’s been happening in the last few weeks…is threatening our national security and undermining the very tenets of our democracy," Ahmed told Hayes.
"So proud of Rumana, a true patriot and selfless public servant," Rice, the former national security adviser, tweeted Thursday. "She is the best of America. Big loss to USG."
The White House has not commented.