Michael Thomas "Mike" Flynn (born December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the eighteenth director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the first national security advisor appointed by President Donald Trump. Flynn served as the twenty-fifth national security advisor from January 20, 2017, to February 13, 2017. He was forced to resign after information surfaced he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature and content of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. Flynn's tenure of just 24 days as national security advisor is the shortest in the history of the office.
Flynn's military career was primarily operational, with numerous combat arms, conventional, and special operations senior intelligence assignments. He co-authored a report in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security, entitled Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan. In addition, Flynn served as the commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, chair of the military intelligence board, assistant director of national intelligence, and the senior intelligence officer for the joint operations command. In 2014, he retired with 33 years service in the army, a year before he was scheduled to leave his position.
Flynn was born in December 1958 in Middletown, Rhode Island, the son of Helen Frances (Andrews), who worked in real estate, and Charles Francis Flynn, a banker.