Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump’s Brit

The deputy assistant to the 45th President says there is ‘fabulous complementarity’ among the team

issue 29 April 2017

Sebastian Gorka is a big man. He has a powerful handshake, a deep voice, and a serious goatee. He’s also deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, and known as the most influential Brit in the White House. He was born in London, the son of Hungarian immigrants, and grew up in Ealing. Yet he seems to identify more with America and Hungary than with Britain. When I ask him if he feels British, he says, ‘As a good friend said to me, and I think this is a quote from someone else, possibly Hayek, “You were always American, you were just born in the wrong country.”’

Nevertheless, the British government, desperate to form bonds with a Brexit–friendly Trump administration, has been eager to claim him as one of us. ‘They almost instantly glommed on to me,’ he says, ‘I’m seen by 10 Downing Street and the FCO as somebody to talk to about things.

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