WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump has tapped retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to become his national security adviser, a source with knowledge of the matter has revealed.

The source told NBC Wednesday evening that Trump had settled on Flynn, who was also being considered for the secretary of defense post.

Earlier in the evening, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the President-elect had met with Flynn and added he would make a “fantastic addition” to the team.  

“He has been a companion on the campaign trail quite a bit as we’ve seen over the past few months,” Miller told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

Flynn, 57, was appointed Defense Intelligence Agency director in 2012, but had his tenure cut short in 2014 after an apparent falling out with top Obama administration officials.  

Much aligned with Trump’s campaign rhetoric, Flynn claims in a recently published book that the U.S. is losing a “world war” against radical Islam because of “political correctness.” In the book, he also claims without proof that American Islamists are attempting to create “an Islamic state right here at home” by pushing to implement “legal standing for Sharia.”  

Flynn, 57, was appointed Defense Intelligence Agency director in 2012, but had his tenure cut short in 2014 after an apparent falling out with top Obama administration officials.  

Much aligned with Trump’s campaign rhetoric, Flynn claims in a recently published book that the U.S. is losing a “world war” against radical Islam because of “political correctness.” In the book, he also claims without proof that American Islamists are attempting to create “an Islamic state right here at home” by pushing to implement “legal standing for Sharia.”  

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) quickly condemned the move. 

“A person who believes the faith of one fourth of the world’s population is a ‘cancer’ should not be advising the president on anything, let alone on our nation’s security,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We urge President-elect Trump not to appoint General Flynn to any administration post, and if he already has made that decision, to find another candidate who does not hold such bigoted views.”

Awad noted that Flynn is on the board of advisers for ACT for America, a virulently anti-Muslim hate group headed by Hanah Kahwagi Tudor, who goes by the pseudonym “Brigitte Gabriel.” [NOTE: ACT for America has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).]