The number of Indian Americans in key roles in the team of former US President Joe Biden was over 130. And even as members of the community have been expressing disappointment over the low number of Indian Americans in the administration of President Donald Trump’s second term; three new appointments have recently been announced. Ricky Gill has been appointed as senior director, South and Central Asia, National Security Council (NSC) and Saurabh Sharma is to join the Presidential personnel office, focusing on staffing and appointments. Former journalist Kush Desai has been appointed deputy press secretary in the White House communications team.
Gill, an attorney, had served as the NSC director for Europe and Russian affairs in the previous Trump government and as senior advisor in the bureau of overseas building operations at the state department from 2017 to 2020. Later, he was principal and general counsel at Gill Capital Group and policy adviser at TC Energy.
Sharma was born in Bengaluru and is co-founder and President of American Moment, a conservative group in Washington DC. He graduated in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2019, where he was the youngest ever state chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas.
Desai, a former journalist and Dartmouth College graduate, worked as director of communications for Pennsylvania and deputy director of communications for the battleground states, for the Republican National Committee, during Trump’s presidential campaign last year.