According to news site Business Insider, Sebastian Gorka, a national security expert who has served as a Fox News contributor and national security editor for far-right news site Breitbart, is “expected to join President Donald Trump’s White House.” He was also charged with a weapons offense last year for attempting to bring a gun onto an airplane.
The news came from an unknown source, who also claims that Gorka will likely receive a position in Trump’s National Security Council.
Gorka, who was born in London to parents who had fled the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, has also in the past served as an advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He also worked at the Hungarian Ministry of Defense during the Prime Ministry of József Antall, Hungary’s first PM following the end of Communism.
Mr. Gorka entered Hungarian public life following the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, when he appeared multiple times on Hungarian television as a security expert.
Following a break with Orbán and Fidesz in 2006, Gorka briefly attempted to establish his own alternative right-wing party in Hungary, called the New Democratic Coalition (Új Demokratikus Koalíció), but without much success. In an interview with Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet, Gorka said that he currently has no political relationships or consulting roles in Hungary, “only personal relationships.”
Speaking of Hungarian and the Orbán government, Gorka has said that, after years of dancing between Russia and NATO, Hungary has to decide “if it will follow the Western and Western European system of values, or not,” and added that “this cannot be put off forever.”
In addition to his activities in Hungary, Gorka, who holds a PhD in political science, has taught at Georgetown University, and has served as an advisor to the US Military and the Department of Defense.
Gorka has written for Breitbart since early 2014, and in addition wrote for the Hungarian weekly magazine Heti Válasz in 2005. He is the author of a New York Times best-selling book, entitled Defeating Jihad. He has also written policy papers for Trump and was paid by Trump’s campaign for ‘policy consulting.’
Gorka, whose official relationship with Fox News was reportedly ended “when he informed executives of his new position,” is far from the first Breitbart face to join Trump’s administration. Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s chairman, had served as the campaign’s CEO and currently holds the title of White House Chief Strategist; in addition, Julia Hahn, a “hardline immigration writer for Breitbart,” is also expected to join Trump’s White House as a special assistant.
According to the Washington Post, in early 2016 Gorka was charged with a weapons offense after attempting to bring a 9mm handgun onto an airplane at DC’s Reagan National Airport. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials said that the gun was detected and confiscated.
Via Business Insider, valasz.hu, 444.hu, Magyar Nemzet, and the Washington Post
Image via foxla.com