One group, he said, consists of those “who are not there to give the president options—they’re there to try to manipulate the situation based on their own agenda, not the president’s agenda.”

The other group “cast themselves in the role of saving the country, even the world, from the president,” he said.

“I think those latter two categories of people are actually a danger to the Constitution of the United States,” he said.

While McMaster did not identify any White House advisers in his warning, it appeared to echo a claim about an internal “resistance” made in an explosive anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times last year. The op-ed, whose author claimed to be a senior official in the Trump administration, said several officials worried about Trump’s “erratic” behavior were intentionally thwarting parts of his agenda to stop his “worst inclinations.”