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Kathleen Troia McFarland (born Kathleen M. Troia; July 22, 1951) is an American political commentator, civil servant, author, and former political candidate. McFarland began her political career in the 1970s as a night-shift typist and assistant press liaison for National Security Council staff. In the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, she worked in the Department of Defense as a speechwriter and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In 2006, she ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in New York. McFarland served as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn in 2017 during the Donald Trump administration. She was asked to step down by Flynn's successor, H. R. McMaster, in April 2017, and was then nominated by Trump to the post of U.S. Ambassador to Singapore. McFarland removed her name from consideration for the ambassadorship in February 2018 due to concerns about her answers to questions related to links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies.McFarland frequently appears on Fox News and has written three books. Early life and education Kathleen Troia was born on July 22, 1951, in Madison, Wisconsin, where she grew up as the oldest of four siblings. Her father was a train dispatcher for the Chicago and North Western Railway. Troia has asserted that her father was physically abusive and had persistent rage issues. Her father denied these claims. Troia's brother, Tom Troia, has spoken out in his father's defense.Troia had two brothers, Tom and Michael Troia. Troia graduated from Madison West High School in 1969.Troia studied at the Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 1970, she worked part-time at the Nixon White House for Henry Kissinger's National Security Council staff. She was on the nighttime typing pool, which meant that she typed the President's Daily Brief. Intrigued by U.S. foreign policy and Nixon's 1972 China visit, Troia majored in Chinese studies, graduating from George Washington in 1973.After working in the Ford administration, Troia studied on scholarship at Oxford University, where she earned a combined master's degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.Troia attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While there, she studied nuclear weapons, China, and the Soviet Union for three years, but did not complete her Ph.D. Career Early career Troia continued to work in the White House as a research assistant during the Ford administration, and at times assisted or filled in for the NSC press liaison. She is sometimes considered a Kissinger protégée. In December 1975, an Associated Press story quoted the 24-year Troia extolling Secretary of State Kissinger in keeping the world's image of the United States strong during the Nixon impeachment.Troia returned to Washington, D.C., in 1981 following the election of Ronald Reagan as president and the new Republican majority in the U.S. Senate and became a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee staff, working for chair John Tower. There, she worked on the preparation of committee briefings and talking points. Reagan administration During the Reagan administration, when she was known informally as Kathy Troia, Troia started working as a speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in March 1982. Specifically, she worked on his "Six Tests for the Use of U.S. Military Power" speech, sometimes considered a forerunner of the Powell Doctrine.In December 1983, Troia was promoted to Principal Deputy to Michael I. Birch, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. She later served as Pentagon spokesperson, with newspaper articles from that time describing her as a "senior Pentagon spokeswoman". She was reportedly under consideration for the Assistant Secretary position. She stayed in this position until approximately November 1984. Career hiatus Troia married Alan Roberts McFarland in 1985. After getting married, Troia was known as K.T. McFarland. Beginning in 1985, K.T. McFarland was a stay-at-home mother. 2006 U.S. Senate campaign In 2006, K.T. McFarland ran in the Republican primary in the United States Senate election in New York for a seat held by Democrat Hillary Clinton. She was a late entrant who was recruited once the candidacy of the leading Republican, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, imploded.McFarland wanted to make a point by running as a Republican in New York, saying: "I spent 20 years of my life fighting against single party rule. It was called the Soviet Union and Communism then". McFarland described herself both as a "moderate Republican" and a "Reagan Republican". She is pro-choice. She ran into trouble with a March 2006 comment that appeared to allege that the Clinton campaign had been flying helicopters low over her Southampton, New York, house and spying on her, or that Clinton forces had rented an apartment across from her $18 million duplex on Park Avenue; she later said she had been joking, but the episodes upset her. The race between McFarland and her opponent, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, was ugly.McFarland's candidacy was plagued by allegations that she overstated her credentials. Specifically, The New York Times reported that McFarland's claim that she had written part of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" speech was false, that her contention that she had been the highest-ranking woman of her time at the Reagan Pentagon was false, and that her claim that she had been the first female professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee was false. Also, the Spencer campaign objected to her assertion that she had held a civilian rank equivalent to that of a three-star general.McFarland's inconsistent record of voting in prior New York state elections also became an issue, with her having failed to vote in six of the past 14 elections. McFarland also unlawfully maintained voting addresses in two different places at the same time, sometimes voting in one municipality and sometimes voting in another. She emphasized that she had never voted twice in one election, promising to cancel one of her voter registrations. By late June, her campaign was nearly out of money, and she loaned $100,000 to the campaign. On August 22, McFarland suspended her campaign after her daughter was caught shoplifting in Southampton.In the September 12 Republican primary, McFarland was defeated by Spencer, 61% to 39%, amid historically low turnout. Spencer went on to lose to Clinton in the general election. Political commentator In 2010, McFarland regularly appeared on Fox News as a commentator, wrote a weekly column on FoxNews.com, and hosted an online talk show called Defcon 3, a reference to DEFCON, the United States' defense readiness scale. She also appeared regularly on Fox News Radio, ABC Radio, WMAL, and WVOX.In this role, McFarland was highly critical of President Obama's approa.... Discover the Kathleen M Hill popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kathleen M Hill books.