John Ullyot, a Trump loyalist and Marine veteran, has joined the Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president and National Security Council senior director for strategic communications, according to a source close to Ullyot.
Ullyot previously served in the administration as assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2017 to 2019.
He left the VA after the two-year mark, but was recommended by current administration and former campaign officials to recently-appointed National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and asked to serve again.
Ullyot has served on Trump’s campaign beginning in June 2016, before the Republican National Convention. As a senior adviser, he hired and led all communications teams in the 50 states. He worked at the Trump Tower in the last few months of the campaign and after the election, first served on the Pentagon’s beachhead team but went to the VA after an opportunity opened up.
According to the source close to Ullyot, his goal is to take the president’s “direct vision” and “highly effective foreign policy” and make sure that that is communicated effectively and accurately to the American people. The source said:
We’ve got a president who has a very direct vision on how he sees force projection. As we saw with al-Baghdadi, it’s when it’s in our best interest but we’re not going to be deployed overseas just for the sake of being deployed where we’ve been for 30, 40 years in some cases.
Trump supports a well-resourced Pentagon, but supports employing those resources in a smart and efficient way, the source added.
“President Trump has the best vision of any president in a quarter-century about how to project our foreign policy in a way that serves the taxpayers [and] veterans as well,” the source said.
Although he is a Trump loyalist, those who know him say he has a reputation for working across the aisle.
“John Ullyot was one of the most collegial senior staff members in the Senate. A seasoned national security professional, I always found him thoughtful and collaborative,” said retired Navy Commander Mark Brunner, a former national security adviser for Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
“We need experienced people to serve in these critical positions, and John’s three decades of service in the national security arena will serve the country and the NSC well,” he added.
Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold L. Punaro, who served as former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee under Chairman Sam Nunn (D-GA) said in a statement:
John Ullyot is a Marine veteran with longtime senior service on the Senate staff working for statesmen like John Warner and Arlen Specter. John is known for his thoughtful, consensus building approach, reaching across party lines to drive the best results for our national security regardless of the issue — he will be a great addition to the NSC leadership team.
Ullyot joined the NSC just two days ago, as the successful U.S. military raid in Syria that killed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was announced.
The source close to Ullyot described a good NSC team in place under O’Brien’s leadership to take Trump through the last 15 months of his first term.
Trump is “really hitting his stride and making very out-of-the-box decisions,” the source said, adding:
The president has the vision for how to have the most effective foreign policy and most efficient foreign policy for our country that keeps us safe, at the same time recognizing that we’re not…going to be policing the world for the sake of policing the world.
After graduating from Harvard in 1991, Ullyot joined the Marine Corps and served for four years as an intelligence officer. He then served as vice president of corporate communications for AOL Europe before joining the Trump campaign and subsequently serving at the VA.
He also served as head of global media relations at DuPont and served as communications director for seven years for the Senate Armed Services and Veteran Affairs Committees.
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