Sebastian Gorka and his hard-right views on Islam head back to the White House
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 Donald 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. [Continue reading…]