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President-elect Trump is expected to announce Eric Trager as senior director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council, a congressional aide told The Hill.
Trager has been a Republican staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2018. An expert on Egyptian politics, he was also an Esther K. Wagner Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and published a book on the ‘rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring.
Trager is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and the University of California.
He will fill the NSC position currently held by Brett McGurk, a senior member of President Biden’s Middle East staff who has been involved in negotiations for the release of hostages seized from Israel by Hamas; a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon; and was a key interlocutor with Saudi Arabia.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, would not confirm the appointment when reached for comment.
“President-elect Trump has made brilliant decisions about who will serve in his second administration at a blistering pace. The remaining decisions will continue to be announced by him as they are made,” he said.
The appointment would add to Trump’s growing list of Middle East advisers dealing with a region rocked by a hot war for more than a year.
This includes Trump’s selection of his close friend and real estate investor Steve Witkoff as special envoy for Middle East peace; his daughter’s father-in-law, Masoud Boulous, as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs; and former State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus as deputy special envoy for Middle East peace.
Trump warned on Tuesday that “all hell” will break loose in the Middle East if Hamas does not release the hostages it seized from Israel before his inauguration on January 20, and has sent Witkoff to cease-fire talks in Qatar along with the efforts of the Biden administration and Israelis. civil servants
Other crises likely to face the Trump team include maintaining a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon; dealing with a new interim government in Syria headed by a US-designated terrorist group; the fate of 2,000 US troops stationed in northeastern Syria supporting Kurdish forces preventing the resurgence of ISIS; Iran’s continued drive to advance its nuclear program; and efforts to broker ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
