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sebastian gorka
Trump Adviser Says Those Who Oppose Abrego Garcia Detention May Be 'Aiding and Abetting' Terrorism
"Americans are increasingly coming into the crosshairs" as the Trump administration wages attacks on dissenters, said journalist Ken Kippenstein.
Apr 17, 2025
Rights advocates who have expressed outrage in recent weeks over the Trump administration's expulsion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and other migrants have based their criticism on core tenets of the U.S. Constitution—particularly the right to due process—but President Donald Trump's top counterterrorism adviser on Tuesday night suggested that defenders of basic constitutional rights are actually "aiding and abetting" terrorists.
As independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported, White House Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka said in an interview with Newsmax that the divide between the Trump administration, which has sent hundreds of people to a notorious foreign prison without trial and disobeyed a Supreme Court order, and those who oppose its actions boils down to a disagreement between those who "love America" and those who "hate America."
Those committed to abandoning constitutional rights guaranteed to anyone on U.S. soil, according to Gorka, are in the former camp.
"We have people who love America, like the president, like his Cabinet, like the directors of his agencies, who want to protect Americans," said Gorka. "And then there is the other side, that is on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists."
"And you have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them?" Gorka said. "Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute."
White House 'counterterrorism czar' Sebastian Gorka says Americans who criticize deportations like that of Abrego Garcia are 'aiding and abetting terrorists' — a criminal offense. pic.twitter.com/ZdjahFyvmG
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) April 17, 2025
In his newsletter, Klippenstein analyzed whether "Gorka's intensely partisan worldview be turned into government practice," noting that his comments came the day before Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador to speak to top government officials about releasing Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who has been repeatedly accused by the Trump administration of being a "convicted" member of the gang MS-13 despite having no criminal record.
"The Trump administration has already taken the unprecedented step of formally designating a variety of 'transnational criminal organizations,' gangs and drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," said Klippenstein. "With that in place, all the administration would have to do to turn Gorka's rhetoric into reality would be to claim that critics of Trump's immigration and deportation policies are providing them with 'material support.'"
Gorka suggested that actions such as Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador, during which he tried but was unable to make contact with Abrego Garcia, who is being detained at President Nayib Bukele's Terrorism Confinement Center, could eventually be the basis of felony charges against the senator.
The counterterrorism czar lambasted Democrats for expressing concern about "the rights of this individual," referring to Abrego Garcia.
"You mean the terrorist who came here illegally?" he said, echoing Bukele's baseless suggestion in the Oval Office of the White House earlier this week that the Maryland resident has been proven to be a terrorist.
Klippenstein warned that while Gorka's statements appeared to display a "wingnut" legal theory, the counterterrorism adviser is "much more powerful than he was in Trump's first term," when he was briefly a deputy assistant to the president and was largely dismissed as a fringe figure in Trump's orbit.
Gorka is now leading Trump's counterterrorism strategy, including the government's shift in focus toward anti-Trump protests like those that have taken place at Tesla dealerships.
"So-called Tesla terrorism and potential anti-Trump violence is driving new articulations of the threat," a senior intelligence official told Klippenstein.
Klippenstein wrote on Wednesday that Gorka's comments reveal the Trump administration's plan to cast "a wider and wider net in its new domestic war on terrorism," potentially targeting anyone who opposes Trump's flouting of court orders and his anti-immigration operation.
"While the media's focus is understandably on migrants and deportees," said Klippenstein, "Americans are increasingly coming into the crosshairs."
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Trump Move to Bring White Nationalist Sebastian Gorka Back to White House Blasted as 'Sanctioning Discrimination'
"Trump and Gorka are spreading fear and division that leads to violence and harassment targeting Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Asian American Pacific Islanders, and all people of color."
Jul 16, 2020
Rights activists and anti-racism advocates decried news from the White House this week that President Donald Trump is appointing notorious white nationalist Sebastian Gorka to the National Security Education Board, calling the decision a "slap in the face" to Jewish Americans and other marginalized communities around the country.
"President Trump's decision to rehire Sebastian Gorka, who holds close ties to white nationalist and antisemitic groups, is yet another slap in the face to Jewish Americans," Bend the Arc: Jewish Action CEO Stosh Cotler said in a statement Wednesday responding to the appointment. "White nationalists and their allies should have no place in our government."
\u201cBREAKING: President Trump just announced he intends to appoint SEBASTIAN GORKA to be a member of the National Security Education Board.\n\nGorka has ties to the Vit\u00e9zi Rend, a far-right Hungarian group aligned with Nazis.\n\nHe is a bigot & a white nationalist. \n\nWe must #StopGorka.\u201d— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@Bend the Arc: Jewish Action) 1594758495
"Gorka's reappointment continues a pattern of shameful behavior by Trump and his allies of claiming to defend Jewish people from antisemitism while actively putting our lives in danger," Cotler added. "From enabling a growing white nationalist movement, to governing with an agenda rooted in bigotry, to popularizing dangerous conspiracy theories, Trump and Gorka are spreading fear and division that leads to violence and harassment targeting Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Asian American Pacific Islanders, and all people of color."
A self-described national security expert, Gorka has a long history of inflammatory comments and alliances with white supremacist groups, including Vitezi Rend, an extreme-right Hungarian group that critics say is antisemitic and racist.
As CNN reported, Gorka's credentials are at best questionable:
In 2017, CNN interviewed a dozen international security and terrorism experts and scholars who said Gorka's experience in their field is limited. They pointed out that Gorka does not speak Arabic, has done very little traveling in Muslim countries and has never worked in any official leadership or management role in foreign policy, intelligence or the military.
Nonetheless, Gorka has remained close to the White House even after leaving the administration, where he previously served as a deputy assistant to the president, in August 2017. His appointment to the National Security Education Board will give the right-wing commentator power on a panel that delivers scholarships and aid to students in the national security field and has oversight over the National Security Education Program (NSEP).
\u201c\u201cBy placing Sebastian Gorka in a position that influences national security interests, President Trump has abandoned all public pretense and decided to openly embrace extremist views." - @splcenter \n\nhttps://t.co/J1TWDQRAWe\u201d— The Bridge Initiative (@The Bridge Initiative) 1594909044
The appointment of someone with Gorka's views to the board sends a message, Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund president and CEO Margaret Huang said in a statement.
"The NSEP is supposed to help provide a broad pool of civil servants who understand different cultures and speak critically needed languages to work for the United States government," said Huang. "By placing someone like Gorka on the board that oversees this critical program, President Trump is sanctioning discrimination and exclusion of individuals who hold these skills that are gravely needed."
On Tuesday, the Jewish Democratic Council of America tied the appointment to Trump's nationalist agenda and increasingly racist re-election campaign.
"In the past few weeks, Trump has amplified calls for 'white power,' advertised on Facebook using Nazi images, and sold campaign shirts with the Nazi Eagle," the group said. "Now, Trump is bringing a medal-donning Nazi-sympathizer back to the White House, where he'll be in good company alongside the team driving Trump's vile 'four more years of hate' re-election campaign."
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Trump's Reappointment of Sebastian Gorka "A Slap in the Face to Jewish Americans"
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released the following statement on Wednesday in response to Sebastian Gorka's appointment to the
Jul 15, 2020
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released the following statement on Wednesday in response to Sebastian Gorka's appointment to the National Security Education Board:
"President Trump's decision to rehire Sebastian Gorka, who holds close ties to white nationalist and antisemitic groups is yet another slap in the face to Jewish Americans," said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. "White nationalists and their allies should have no place in our government."
Gorka was ousted from his former position as Trump's deputy assistant in 2017 after widespread criticism of his white supremacist ties:
- Gorka has been widely criticized for his ties to Vitezi Rend, a far-right and antisemitic Hungarian group that collaborated with the Nazis. Gorka denies being a sworn member of the group, but he attended the 2017 Inaugural Ball wearing a Vitezi Rend medal -- one he had been photographed wearing in the past.
- Vitezi Rend's leaders claim Gorka swore an oath of allegiance to the group, in which he promised he had "never betrayed my Hungarianness" and would follow the group's orders "for the rest of my life."
- In 1998, Gorka served as an advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has his own documented history of antisemitism.
- In 2007, Gorka co-founded a far-right political party in Hungary with known antisemites.
- In 2007, Gorka appeared on Hungarian television endorsing the Hungarian Guard, a militia condemned by the European Court of Justice for attempting to found an "essentially racist" political order.
- Around the same time, Gorka wrote several op-eds for Magyar Demokrata, a paper notable for publishing antisemitic articles.
- In 2016, Gorka was fired by the FBI for making Islamophobic comments including calling Osama bin Laden "the Martin Luther of Islam."
"Gorka's reappointment continues a pattern of shameful behavior by Trump and his allies of claiming to defend Jewish people from antisemitism while actively putting our lives in danger," said Cotler. "From enabling a growing white nationalist movement, to governing with an agenda rooted in bigotry, to popularizing dangerous conspiracy theories, Trump and Gorka are spreading fear and division that leads to violence and harassment targeting Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Asian American Pacific Islanders, and all people of color."
That's why Bend the Arc: Jewish Action launched the resource www.howtofightantisemitism.com to track the spread of antisemitism and conspiracies from far-right extremists who have taken over the GOP. Sadly, new examples are posted on the website almost every week.
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