Shivers Down My Spine: A Hungarian Immigrant’s Journey to the White House

White House official Sebastian Gorka recently reflected on his journey from legal immigrant to senior adviser in President Donald Trump’s administration, saying his experience illustrates opportunities available in the United States.

Gorka recounted that his parents escaped a communist country during the revolution in Hungary in 1956. He moved to the United States in 2008 after marrying an American and became a naturalized U.S. citizen several years later.

He described an experience from January 2017, shortly after Trump was inaugurated for his first term, which underscored what he views as the opportunities afforded by the United States.

“I still get shivers down my spine when I tell the story of what happened nine years ago,” Gorka said. “I was walking through the West Wing with an all-access identification badge about five years after taking the oath of citizenship.”

“Where in the world, five years after you become a citizen of a nation, are you walking around the president or the prime minister’s headquarters?” Gorka added. “Only in America.”

Gorka, who was born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents who fled the Soviet crackdown following Hungary’s 1956 uprising, served as a deputy assistant to Trump during his first term before leaving the White House in 2017. He later remained an outspoken supporter of Trump through media appearances and political commentary.

Trump appointed Gorka to return to the White House in his second administration, where he serves as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism.

Gorka said he considers it a privilege to again serve in the Trump administration and added: “I’m blessed to be back here serving the most consequential president of the modern age.”