Trump’s new national security adviser is under fire for his views on Russia, his business ties to Turkey — and his tweets

President-elect Donald Trump made another controversial Cabinet appointment on Friday, selecting retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to serve as his national security adviser.

Flynn, a registered Democrat who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014 before he was reportedly forced out by his peers, was one of Trump’s earliest and most prominent supporters in the foreign-policy realm. But he has come under scrutiny for some of his business ties, his views toward Russia, and — like Trump — his Twitter account, where he often promoted conspiracy theories throughout Trump’s campaign.

Among them: a fake news story about Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine’s alleged connection to the Palestinian terror organization Hamas, a fake story about Hillary Clinton’s “sex crimes,” and a false meme about prominent journalists supposedly colluding with Clinton.

‘His vision was seen as disruptive’

By most accounts, Flynn had a successful military career, and was appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012,.

He was reportedly forced out in 2014, however, because “his vision” for the agency “was seen as disruptive,” a former Pentagon official who worked closely with Flynn told The Washington Post at the time.

Flynn, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 to 2012, has said he was fired from the DIA because he spoke out against “radical Islam,” which he has called “a cancer” and made it his mission to eradicate.

But the  former official told The Post at the time that the friction was more because Flynn was too hawkish. The official said Flynn wanted to push agents  “up and out of their cubicles into the field to support war fighters or high-intensity operations.”

Read the whole story at Business Insider.

Featured image courtesy of AP.