Sebastian Gorka, the pugilistic commentator who leveraged fears about Islam as a threat to Western civilization into a short-lived role in the first Trump administration, is poised for a second run inside the White House.
Gorka was tapped to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism, president-elect Trump said Friday night. Previously, Gorka was an adviser on national security matters for Trump for seven months until his abrupt exit.
The role, which doesn't require Senate confirmation, will position Gorka to provide counsel and input on issues he has focused on for years, including hard-line approaches on militant groups and immigration. But if his previous role at the Trump administration is any indication, he is poised to ruffle feathers even among reverent Trump loyalists and other Republicans, who have described him as fringe and underqualified, more suited to riff in cable news green rooms than guide policy in the Oval Office.
Gorka, a British-Hungarian-American radio personality, taught courses on national security and served in faculty positions for years, including at military institutions like National Defense University, and worked closely with far-right political operative Stephen K. Bannon at Breitbart News before his first assignment in the Trump White House.
Trump complimented Gorka's qualifications in his announcement and said he "has been a tireless advocate for the America First Agenda and the MAGA movement."
Gorka's second ascension into the White House created immediate turmoil. Michael Anton, a national security official in Trump's first administration, was previously a leading candidate to become deputy national security adviser but pulled himself out of contention when he was told the National Security Council would include a position for Gorka, according to multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
"Almost universally, the entire team considers Gorka a clown," said a person close to the national security transition team. "They are dreading working with him."
Anton did not respond to a request for comment, while Gorka told The Washington Post: "I don't comment to the fake failing news."
John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser who later became a Trump critic, said on CNN that the FBI should investigate his credentials, which Gorka's detractors have said are inflated.
"I wouldn't have him in any U.S. government," Bolton told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "I don't think it will bode well for counterterrorism efforts" with Gorka in the position, Bolton said.
Despite his alignment with Trump's populist rhetoric on issues like immigration, close associates found his views on Muslims in particular to be out of line even with other Trump supporters, as he stoked fears that the United States will fall under what he calls radical Islamic law if extreme steps to combat terror groups are not taken. In the last Trump administration, Gorka lasted only a few months in his position before he and Bannon departed the administration, following White House chief of staff John F. Kelly's efforts to stem infighting and drama. It was widely known Kelly wanted Gorka out, according to Post reporting at the time.
"It is clear to me that forces that do not support the [Make America Great Again] promise are - for now - ascendant within the White House," Gorka wrote at the time. "As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People's House."
Gorka has previewed some of the rhetoric expected to flow from his new perch. In one video last year, after he said he watched unedited video of the Hamas terror attack in Israel, he provided advice to Israeli leaders on how to prosecute their conflict with the terror group.
"Kill every single one of them," Gorka said, presaging an approach that has led to tens of thousands of civilians killed in airstrikes and other attacks. "God bless Israel. God bless Judeo-Christian civilization."