Trump’s new envoy

Donald Trump, President of the US, has nominated 38-year-old Sergio Gor (Sergey Gorokhovsky) as the next Ambassador to India. “I am promoting Sergio Gor to be our next US Ambassador to the Republic of India, and special envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs,” announced the President. “As director, Presidential Personnel, Sergio, along with his team, hired nearly 4,000 America First Patriots across every department of our Federal government in ‘record’ time – our departments and agencies are now over 95 per cent filled! Sergio will remain in his current role at the White House until his confirmation.” 

“Sergio is a great friend, who has been at my side for many years,” he added. “He worked on my historic Presidential campaigns, published my best-selling books and ran one of the biggest super PACs, which supported our movement. Sergio’s role as director, Presidential personnel, has been essential to delivering on the unprecedented mandate that we received from the American People. For the most populous region in the world, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my agenda and help us ‘make America great again’. Sergio will make an incredible ambassador. Congratulations, Sergio!”

Gor was born in Tashkent in 1986, when it was under the Soviets and moved to the US when he was 12 years old. “I am beyond being grateful to President Trump for his incredible trust and confidence in nominating me to be the next US ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs,” said Gor, after being nominated. “Nothing has made me prouder than to serve the American people through the ‘great’ work of this administration. Our White House has achieved historic results in ‘making America great again’.  It will be the honour of my life to represent the United States”.

Earlier, Gor had served as director, Presidential personnel. His
father, an aviation engineer, was involved in designing aircraft used by the Indian Air Force too, while his mother is of Israeli origin. Gor studied at the George Washington University and later joined Trump’s camp during the 2020 elections. He is responsible for hiring 4,000 personnel ‘across every department of the federal government’.

More political appointments

India hasn’t had a US Ambassador since January, after former envoy Eric Garcetti returned to the US. As of July, President Trump had appointed 59 ambassadors, including political and career diplomats, informs the American Foreign Service Association. During his first term, he had more political appointments than previous administrations – at 43.5 per cent. President Carter had the lowest at 26.2 per cent, while former President Biden had 35.1 per cent political appointees. During his first tenure as US President, Trump had nominated Kenneth I Juster as ambassador to India (2017-21).

Ambassador Eric Garcetti, a political appointee, had completed his term as US’ 26th ambassador to India in January this year. Interestingly, before Ambassador Garcetti got clearance to come to India, the position of US ambassador to India had been lying vacant for nearly two years, due to the Senate sitting on his appointment. Nominated by the then US President Joe Biden, Garcetti’s case had been pending the longest, for 16 months, as he was nominated in July 2021. The delay was due to allegations that he did not take action against one of his former aides, who was accused of sexual harassment and bullying, though he was aware of the incident. Garcetti, however, had repeatedly denied those claims.