Sebastian Gorka

Announced as Trump’s pick for Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism

Sebastian Gorka was a deputy assistant to Donald Trump during his administration. He was also part of the “Strategic Initiative Group,” an exclusive group set up by Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon that was described as a “mini think tank” within the White House. Prior to advising Trump, Gorka worked as the national security editor for Steve Bannon’s Breitbart—a platform popular with white nationalists.

Gorka has claimed to know who Trump would choose as his vice presidential running mate. He said, “It’s gonna be a guy. It’s going to be somebody that nobody’s talking about, an amazing patriot who would actually be a real veep who can get stuff done. So, that’s all I’m allowed to say.”

A report from _The Forward _linked Gorka to a Nazi-affiliated Hungarian fraternal group—Vitézi Rend. At Trump’s inauguration ball Gorka wore a medal typically worn by Vitézi Rend members but he claimed, “that it was a gesture honoring his late father.” He also at times referred to himself as “Sebastian L. v. Gorka,” the use of “v.” in this manner is a practice among Vitézi Rend members. Gorka has denied any affiliation with the group.

Gorka was also an avid backer of Trump’s executive orders that temporarily banned entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries to the United States. He falsely claimed that Trump never linked these bans to a specific religious group, but in December 2015 Trump issued a press release titled “DONALD J. TRUMP STATEMENT ON PREVENTING MUSLIM IMMIGRATION,” where he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Gorka himself has claimed that admitting Muslim refugees would be “national suicide.” Notably, during a fundraising event held after Trump’s election in 2016, Gorka reportedly took out a picture he was “not meant to show usually” of a dead, supposedly Muslim man pictured next to an AK-47 assault rifle. Gorka also wrote Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War, claiming that Islam and the Quran serve as the foundation for terrorism. He is also closely connected to Frank Gaffney, the head of the Center for Security Policy, a group known for promoting an anti-Muslim agenda and for paying Ginni Thomas’ consulting firm. Gaffney has claimed Islam is not a religion entitled to protection under the First Amendment but a totalitarian ideology.

Following his seven months with the administration, Gorka started working as a “national security strategist” for FOX and eventually began hosting his own right-wing radio show on “Salem Radio Network.” His spouse, Katharine Cornell Gorka, worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration.