Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

President Donald Trump on Sunday met with four candidates to replace former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, The Hill reports.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Sunday that Trump has met with Army strategist Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster; former United Nations ambassador John Bolton; acting National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg; and West Point superintendent Lt. Col. Robert Caslen.

Sanders said the president could hold more meetings on Monday.

Flynn resigned last Monday, amid reports that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which included discussion of U.S. sanctions.

Flynn's departure came on the heels of revelations that the Justice Department had informed the White House that he could be subject to blackmail from Russia.

After initially denying that the conversation included talk of U.S. sanctions, Flynn admitted he and Kislyak did discuss the 35 Russian officials expelled from the U.S. under former President Barack Obama’s sanctions.

Reports last week indicated that Trump’s top choice to fill the position was Vice Adm. Robert Harward, but he turned down the offer, citing family and financial reasons.

Earlier on Sunday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that senior White House officials and members of the National Security Council are pushing to have Bolton replace Flynn.

According to the report, Bolton's biggest supporters for the position are officials who are loyal to Flynn and were angered by the leaks of the general's conversation with the Russian ambassador which led to his resignation. They believe that Bolton would represent the same vision for national security as Flynn.