There has been a bipartisan consensus on U.S. foreign policy related to India in recent decades: It was in our interests, both parties agreed, to strengthen ties between the United States and the world’s largest democracy.
The reasoning was obvious: India has a massive population, a growing economy, a border with China and, just as importantly, a long-standing relationship with Russia.
In 2025, however, that consensus began to evaporate. As the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently explained, “After more than two decades of bipartisan effort to transform the relationship between New Delhi and Washington, including during his own first term, U.S. President Donald Trump is now in the process of dismantling this painstakingly built relationship.”
It’s against this backdrop that the White House announced its choice to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to India. As NBC News reported late last week:
[Trump] tapped top White House official Sergio Gor for two high-profile roles in Asia: U.S. ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs. Both positions require Senate confirmation. Gor played a key part in building Trump’s second administration as his director of presidential personnel. He was similarly involved in efforts to cut staff at key departments, including the Marco Rubio-led National Security Council. Trump referenced that work in a Truth Social post today.
Gor, a former aide to Republican lawmakers such as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, has no background in diplomacy, but in an online announcement, Trump touted the fact that his nominee, as the White House’s personnel director, “hired nearly 4,000 America First Patriots across every Department of our Federal Government.”
The president added, “Sergio is a great friend, who has been at my side for many years. He worked on my Historic Presidential Campaigns, published my Best Selling Books, and ran one of the biggest Super PACs, which supported our Movement.”
Reporting on his nomination, The New York Times noted, “Mr. Gor has also been a focus of a crush of negative news stories that have raised questions about his personal back story.” That’s true. In fact, as odd as this might sound, The New York Post, a conservative pro-Trump tabloid, reported that Gor changed his surname from Gorokhovsy and misled people about where he was born. And while that reporting has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the Post also reported that Gor, while scrutinizing others who worked in Trump administration, was slow to “submit official paperwork about his own background.” After eventually cooperating with the process, the New York Post went on to report that the FBI completed a background check on Gor, which “stoked internal intrigue” as the findings were “reviewed by West Wing bosses.” The Senate confirmation process is bound to be interesting. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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