Michael Anton

Michael Anton
Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications
In office
February 8, 2017 – April 8, 2018
President Donald Trump
Preceded by Ben Rhodes
Succeeded by Garrett Marquis
Sarah Tinsley
Personal details
Born 1970 (age 47–48)
Education University of California, Berkeley (BA)
St. John's College, Annapolis (MALA)
Claremont Graduate University (MA)

Michael Anton (born 1970) is an American former senior national security official in the Trump administration.[1] He is best known for his pseudonymous essays written during the 2016 presidential campaign in which he supported Donald Trump and collaborated on the pro-Trump Journal of American Greatness blog. Anton was named Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications on the United States National Security Council. He is a former speechwriter for Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush's National Security Council, and has worked as director of communications at investment bank Citigroup and as managing director of investing firm BlackRock.[2][3]

On April 8, 2018, the White House confirmed that Anton would be leaving his position in the Trump administration.[4][5] News reports state that Anton resigned on April 8, 2018, the evening before new National Security Advisor John R. Bolton began his new position in the Trump administration.[6][7]

Life and career

Anton received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, before earning advanced degrees from St. John's College and Claremont Graduate University.[8][9]

He wrote The Suit, a men's fashion book that parodies Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, under the pseudonym "Nicholas Antongiavanni".[10] Michael Anton is of Lebanese descent.

Views

In a March 2016 essay written under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus, Anton said, while defending the "America First" slogan, that the America First Committee which had opposed the U.S. engaging in World War II had been "unfairly maligned"; he also argued that Islam "is a militant faith", and that "only an insane society" would take in Muslim immigrants after the September 11 attacks.[11]

His pseudonymous September 2016 editorial "The Flight 93 Election" compared the prospect of conservatives letting Hillary Clinton win with passengers not charging the cockpit of the Al Qaeda-hijacked flight.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Selected publications

  • (As Nicholas Antongiavanni) The suit: a Machiavellian approach to men's style. New York: Collins, 2006, ISBN 0-06089186-6
  • "Iran and the Costs of Containment", National Review, May 3, 2010 .
  • (As Publius Decius Mus) "Toward a Sensible, Coherent Trumpism". The Unz Review. 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  • (As Publius Decius Mus) 'The Flight 93 Election', CRB, September 5, 2016.
  • ‘America and the Liberal International Order’, American Affairs Vol. I, No 1, Spring 2017.

References

  1. ↑ Maass, Peter. "Trump official obsessed over nuclear apocalypse, men's style and fine wines in 40,000 posts on fashion site". The Intercept. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ Johnson, Eliana; Stokols, Eli (February 7, 2017). 'What Steve Bannon Wants You to Read', Politico.
  3. ↑ Nguyen, Tina (February 23, 2017). "Machiavelli in the White House: Is This the Most Powerful Man in Trump's Administration?". Vanity Fair.
  4. ↑ Chamberlain, Samuel (2018-04-08). "Trump national security spokesman Michael Anton to leave White House". Fox News. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. ↑ Cerbin, Carolyn (April 8, 2018). "National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton to leave White House". USA Today. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
  6. ↑ Borger, Julian (April 9, 2018). "Syria provides John Bolton with first test as Trump's national security adviser". The Guardian. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Dawsey, Josh; Jaffe, Greg (April 10, 2018). "White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert resigns". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  8. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-anton-b12a917
  9. ↑ Maas, Peter (February 12, 2017), "Dark Essays by White House Staffer Are the Intellectual Source Code of Trumpism", The intercept, archived from the original on March 7, 2017, retrieved March 7, 2017, In the beginning, Anton attended Claremont Graduate University, an incubator for conservative thinkers. He became a speechwriter and press secretary for New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, then took a mid-level job at the NSC in the George W. Bush administration. As the Weekly Standard reported, he was part of the team that pushed for the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Anton left the government in 2005 and became a speechwriter for Rupert Murdoch at News Corp., followed by several years in the communications shop at Citigroup, then a year and a half as a managing director at BlackRock, the asset management firm.
  10. ↑ "The Dandy". Humanities: The Magazine for the National Endowment for the Humanities. March–April 2008. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  11. ↑ Schulberg, Jessica (February 8, 2017), "Trump Aide Derided Islam, Immigration and Diversity, Embraced an Anti-Semitic Past", The Huffington post – via Foreign Affairs
  12. ↑ "The Anonymous Pro-Trump 'Decius' Now Works Inside The White House". February 2, 2017.
  13. ↑ Chait, Jonathan. "America's Leading Authoritarian Is Working for Trump". NY Mag.
  14. ↑ Schulberg 2017.
  15. ↑ Celeste, Katz. "Bannon isn't the only shadowy far-right figure in the White House — meet Michael Anton". Mic.
  16. ↑ Leonhardt, David (February 3, 2017). "The Unmasking of a Trumpist". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Republicans: You must impeach President Trump". The Week. February 3, 2017.
  18. ↑ Gray, Rosie. "The Anti-Democracy Movement Influencing the Right". The Atlantic.
  19. ↑ Maas 2017.
  • Works by or about Michael Anton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • Michael Anton, Frum Forum, February 11, 2009.
  • Christian Chensvold: Five Questions: For Nicholas Antongiavanni / Suiting up for men's power dressing, Interview, in: San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 2006.
  • Clothes Make the Man, Talk by Michael Anton, February 11, 2007.
  • The Dandy, Interview with Bruce Cole, in: Humanities, official journal of the National Endowment for the Humanities, March/April 2008.
  • Michael Anton, LinkedIn
  • Mills, Curt (April 9, 2018). "Michael Anton Lost the Faith of the Populist Right". The National Interest.
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