Gorka leaves White House post

by Julia Manchester and Katie Bo Williams - 08/25/17 8:21 PM ET

Sebastian Gorka, special assistant to President Trump, has offered his letter of resignation to the president, according to multiple reports on Friday.

“[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 in a letter obtained by The Federalist that was confirmed by CNN.

“As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House,” he continued.

Gorka did not immediately respond when asked to confirm. A White House official pushed back on reports that Gorka had resigned while confirming he had left his post.

“Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House,” the official said.

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Speculation has swirled since the ouster of former Brietbart colleague Stephen Bannon that Gorka, long one of the more controversial figures in Trump’s White House, was on the rocks under the reign of newly-minted chief of staff John Kelly.

In his first month in the White House, the retired four-star Marine has been behind the purge of both Bannon, a chief strategist, and communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Gorka, a former national security editor at Breitbart and an ally of Bannon’s, was widely suspected to be his next scalp.

His resignation comes exactly one week after Bannon left his White House post. Gorka previously served with Bannon at Breitbart.

Gorka was nominally a counterterrorism adviser to the president — known for his focus on Islamist terrorism — but he had been reportedly unable to obtain a security clearance and was most visible recently in TV news appearances known for their confrontational style.

His wife, Katherine, works at the Department of Homeland Security. The pair have been seen as major drivers of the president’s focus on Islamic terror. One of the most vociferous defenders of the president’s immigration and visa executive order banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries, Gorka has repeatedly argued that the Muslim faith is at the heart of the jihadist threat.

Critics have long hammered him for allegedly encouraging white supremacists. He has faced controversy for wearing a medal from a Hungarian order, Vitezi Rend, that was founded by an ally of Adolf Hitler. Gorka claimed he wore the medal to honor his late father, who received it for fighting communism.

Gorka has a political science doctorate, but has a spotty reputation in the academic community. He taught briefly at Marine Corps University.

– Updated at 9:49 p.m.