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Mr. McRaven was a prominent member of the Navy SEALs when he oversaw bin Laden's raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during which the Qaeda leader was killed. Shortly afterwards, Mr. McRaven was appointed to lead the entire contingent of special operations forces at the Pentagon and built the command into a giant of national security.
After 37 years of military service, Mr. McRaven retired in 2014 and became Chancellor of the University of Texas – where he studied journalism at the university – in early 2015. Now aged 63, he left his job last spring, in the middle of a battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
"It is disconcerting that the president is launching a malicious and misinformed attack on a public official such as Bill McRaven," said Stephen B. Slick, a former CIA president. station chief in Israel who is now director of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin. "It is unclear what psychological need or political purpose is for such behavior, but that can only feed the concerns of our most important security partners."
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post in August, Mr. McRaven defended John O. Brennan, a former C.I.A. director, whose security clearance was revoked after criticizing Mr. Trump. In a succinct but burning criticism, Mr. McRaven wrote that the president, instead of giving the example as a leader, "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worse again, we had divided in two. a nation."
After almost two years in power, Trump still has not understood the role of the troops he commands, nor the responsibility he has to assume, senior officials in the Defense Department said. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the president addressed another criticism that he had not yet visited US troops in war zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump said he had "an incredibly busy schedule," but that "things are being planned." He added, "I think that will happen."
While fighting with Mr. McRaven, Mr. Trump faced a highly decorated military leader.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Mr. McRaven, a captain at the time, was assigned to the White House National Security Council to deal with counterterrorism issues as he recovered injuries from a parachute training accident.
