The importance of being Sergio Gor, Trump's new Ambassador to India

The fact that Gor has President Trump's ear makes him an extremely valuable commodity for India - he represents both a challenge and an opportunity

He has no experience of trade or economic management. His publishing business was aimed at a largely captive audience. He has no particular interest in geopolitics, no specialised understanding of South Asia or India. What Sergey Gorokhovsky, or Sergio Gor, the new United States Ambassador to India, has going for him is this: he has President Donald Trump’s ear. And that makes him an extremely valuable commodity for New Delhi. He represents a challenge – and an opportunity.

 

Every political appointee in the US, from Vice President JD Vance to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to FBI Director Kash Patel to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, rushed to publicly congratulate Gor on his new appointment. There was a reason for this: Gor was the one to sign off on their antecedents when they were being considered for their jobs. In his position as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, he was the one responsible for research, background checks, security clearances, and recommendations on putative Federal appointees and whether or not they should be hired.   Trump’s first term was notable for the turnover of officials and the rapidity with which they were hired and fired. “If there was one criticism that I would level against the President it is he didn’t hire very well,” Trump’s former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulwaney told CNN in 2020 in what is considered an understatement. “He did not have experience at running government and didn’t know how to put together a team that could work well with him.” Trump was clear he did not want to make the same staffing mistakes that he did in his first tenure. Gor’s intensive background checks made him a person to be both respected and feared in the new administration. And at least 4,000 people he was responsible for hiring for federal jobs owe their loyalty to the MAGA Republican Party (as opposed to the traditional Republicans) and to him personally. A source said he was ‘ruthlessly efficient’ and The Washington Post reported that his beagle was called Machiavelli.

 

When Elon Musk referred to him as a "snake", it was because Gor’s advice to the US President prevailed over Musk’s. In some ways, it drove a stake in the relationship between the two. The issue was businessman and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman’s appointment as Nasa Administrator. “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head Nasa,” President Trump announced weeks before Isaacman’s confirmation, the penultimate stage in his appointment. ‘Prior associations’? Gor found out Isaacman had made political contributions to the Democrats and reported this to the President. Of course, his proximity to Musk – and possible future conflicts of interests – was a consideration.

 

How did Gor come to occupy such a central position in the power matrix? He has risen from the ranks. In 2008 when he was just in his early 20s, Gor became an active supporter of Sen John McCain’s campaign to become President. He became a spokesman for Republicans like Steve King who was one of Trump’s earliest backers and held strong views on immigration and national security; and Michele Bachmann, who many believe was actually a precursor and fount of Trump’s MAGA politics. 

 

Gor later joined Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist who was also Senator from Kentucky, and one of Trump’s supporters-turned-critics, as his communications director. He ran RandPAC, a fund-raising campaign mounted by Paul, eventually becoming a board member of Right For America, that raised upwards of $70 million for the Trump campaign. 

 

In 2020, Gor became chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance Committee, leveraging his understanding of how to raise money for political campaigns. Around the same time, he turned publisher, launching Trump’s books. The Art of the Deal gives extensive insights into the US President’s thinking.

 

Most Indians in the US who are watching India-US ties closely feel Gor’s appointment means visa immigration and US national security issues will now get renewed focus. They also believe trade, which is currently the thorniest issue in relations between the two countries, will have to be viewed through a different lens. Gor will have to be convinced why GMO is so sensitive for India. New Delhi might have to ask itself if subsidy and protection to wealthy milk cooperatives is worth putting Indo-US trade at stake. But the bottom line is: India will have to deal with Sergio Gor differently from all the US Ambassadors New Delhi has had in the past, not just because he is also the first Special Envoy for the South Asia Bureau who is also Ambassador for India and will view the region with different eyes, possibly re-hyphenation. Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said as much on X when he observed: "Ipso facto he (Gor) will be supervising India's relationship within this region to develop a more integrated approach. This is a new form of 'hyphenating' India and Pakistan again, amongst other things" This is the challenge. The opportunity is having access to President Trump through one of his most trusted aides.