White House names new top homeland security advisor

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Doug Fears will take up a senior National Security Council post that includes being the top White House official on cybersecurity, the Trump administration announced June 1.

Fears will double as the senior White House cybersecurity advisor, managing the White House Cybersecurity Directorate. That's the most senior cybersecurity role in the administration, now that the post of White House cybersecurity coordinator has been eliminated. The job carries the rank of deputy assistant to the president, which is below the level occupied by Tom Bossert, the previous occupant of the job.

Bossert was widely reported to have been forced out of his job the day after John Bolton took over as national security advisor.

"Doug Fears brings more than three decades of experience across a range of vital homeland security areas including counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and disaster response to the NSC," Bolton said in a statement.

Fears was already serving in the Trump White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for resilience policy. He was going to lead the Coast Guard Cyber Command before the White House billet was announced, according to multiple press reports.

A career Coast Guard officer, Fears is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. He also has advanced degrees from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the U.S. Naval War College.