STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
I am pleased to announce that Alex Wong will be appointed Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, and Dr. Sebastian Gorka as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
Alex served during my First Term as the Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State. He was also my Nominee in the First Term to be U.S. Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations. As Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, he helped negotiate my Summit with North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un. Alex also led the State Department’s efforts to implement the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.
Alex received his JD with High Honors from Harvard Law School, where he was the Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and an Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and served as Chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a Congressionally appointed panel. Alex previously served as the Foreign Policy Advisor and General Counsel to Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark). He also served for the State Department in Iraq as a Judicial and Anticorruption Advisor. Alex also spent years in private Legal practice, counseling Fortune 100 clients on International Trade and Governmental Investigations matters. He began his Legal career as a clerk for the Honorable Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka will be returning to the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism. Since 2015, Dr. Gorka has been a tireless advocate for the America First Agenda and the MAGA Movement, serving previously as Strategist to the President in the first Trump Administration.
Dr. Gorka is a legal immigrant to the United States, with more than 30 years of National Security experience. In 2015, he was one of my Advisors for the GOP Primary Debates on National Security. At the time, he held the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory at the Marine University Foundation, and was a Guest Instructor at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg. Prior to that, he was Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at National Defense University, and Kokkalis Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a Recipient of the DoD Joint Civilian Service Commendation awarded by USSOCOM for his work in Counterterrorism.
Dr. Gorka lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Katharine, who was a Presidential Appointee at the Department of Homeland Security, and Press Secretary for Customs and Border Protection in the first Trump Administration.