Sebastian Gorka is resigning his post as Deputy Assistant to President Trump, multiple sources familiar with the situation have told The Federalist.
In a blunt resignation letter, the national security and counterterrorism expert expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the Trump administration. “[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.”
Gorka’s letter expressed unhappiness with the direction the Trump administration’s foreign policy has taken, as signaled by the president’s recent speech on Afghanistan:
“Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months. This was made patently obvious as I read the text of your speech on Afghanistan this week…
“The fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost…
“Just as worrying, when discussing our future actions in the region, the speech listed operational objectives without ever defining the strategic victory conditions we are fighting for. This omission should seriously disturb any national security professional, and any American who is unsatisfied with the last 16 years of disastrous policy decisions which have led to thousands of Americans killed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent in ways that have not brought security or victory.”
During his time in the Trump administration, Gorka focused on issues such as countering the Muslim Brotherhood, the crisis in Qatar, supporting efforts to draft a new long-term national security strategy, and combatting China’s economic warfare. Before coming to the White House, Gorka was the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair at Marine Corps University and also contributed to Breitbart News.
Source: The Federalist
Why it’s on our radar: Gorka is brilliant and has been an eloquent, loyal defender of the president and his agenda. But he obviously sees the same thing I laid out in a post at the Watchfloor yesterday (click here), well before reports surfaced of Gorka’s departure from the adminstration — more of the same in Afghanistan with no sound exit strategy.
This is a blow to Trump’s geopolitical agenda; he campaigned on less U.S. interventionism, not maintaining the status quo. Gorka’s departure indicates he believes the nation is in store for more of the same kind of U.S. foreign policy that we’ve seen for the past 25 years: U.S. interventionism abroad with no clear exit strategy.
The internationalist wing of the U.S. foreign policymaking appartus is winning over President Trump.
