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"Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer
works at the White House," a White House official said in a
statement.
The official did not elaborate, but the statement suggested that
Gorka had been fired.
Gorka had reportedly feuded with national security adviser
General H.R. McMaster and was unhappy with the decision Trump
announced this week - backed by McMaster and the U.S. military -
to reorient U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
Gorka, who frequently appeared on cable news shows to tout
Trump’s policies, was a divisive figure within the
administration, seen by veteran intelligence professionals and
diplomats as an ideologue with little real-world experience.
He is the latest in a string of hawkish or nationalist advisers
to leave the National Security Council and other parts of the
White House in recent weeks, suggesting that in the battle among
Trump's foreign policy advisers, internationalist voices such as
those of McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson are prevailing.
Earlier, the conservative Federalist news outlet, citing
multiple sources familiar with the situation, said Gorka, a
counterterrorism expert, had quit. In a letter of resignation,
Gorka expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the
Trump administration, the Federalist said.
"As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you,
Mr. President, is from outside the People's House," Gorka was
quoted as saying in the letter.
Trump fired Bannon a week ago in the latest White House
shake-up, removing a far-right architect of his 2016 election
victory and a driving force behind his nationalist and
anti-globalization agenda.
"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," he said in the letter.
A U.S. citizen born in Britain with Hungarian parents, Gorka
worked as national security editor at Bannon's Breitbart news
website, where he often warned of Islamic terrorism.
(Reporting by Eric Walsh, Jeff Mason and Warren Strobel.;
Editing by Sandra Maler; Editing by Michael Perry)
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