Donald Trump actually said...

"The President told his Chief of Staff John Kelly earlier this week that he wanted McMaster gone and wanted finalists to interview to become National Security Adviser."

"The President called the reporting earlier on this, from days ago, fake news about McMaster."

"The President is commander in chief, and no one else, and he has the right to have whoever he wants especially as his national security adviser."

"The question has been whether he would be put somewhere, deployed somewhere, in an effort to get a fourth star or whether he would go somewhere else."