On Friday, US President Donald Trump nominated Tashkent-born Sergio Gor as the ambassador to India. Gor is a close aide and White House Director of Presidential Personnel, and if the Senate confirms his nomination, Gor is going to hold charge as Special Envoy for South and Central Asian affairs. This particular region includes Pakistan and Bangladesh among other countries where Washington does not have an ambassador and US embassy.
“For the most populous region in the world, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my agenda and help us make America great again. Sergio will make an incredible ambassador… A great friend who has been at my side for many years,” posted Donald Trump on social media.
Who is Sergio Gor?
The 39-year-old Gor will be the youngest US ambassador to India and will replace Eric Garcetti, a Democratic appointee who returned to his native California after Biden’s presidency ended. Gor keeps a low profile in the White House and is known to be an insider who, by Trump’s own account, hired nearly 4,000 “America First patriots” across every department of the central government.
“He worked on my historic presidential campaign, published my best-selling books and ran one of the biggest super PACs which supported our movement. Sergio’s role as Director of Presidential Personnel has been essential to delivering on the unprecedented mandate that we received from the American people,” said Trump while introducing his envoy to India.
Gor’s original name is Gorokhovsky and he has no previous connections of work relating to India. He was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (a former part of the USSR). Gor then migrated to the US with his parents in 1999 at the age of 12. His father is reportedly an aviation engineer who worked on aircraft design for the Soviet military, and his mother is said to be of Israeli origin.
The Gors moved to Los Angeles, where young Sergio attended school before moving to the nation’s capital to attend George Washington University. During his youth, Gor was an active conservative Republican and served as spokesperson for lawmakers Steve King and Michele Bachmann, the controversial far-right leaders. He eventually joined Senator Rand Paul as staff and rose to Deputy Chief of Staff.
It was in 2020 that he came to the notice of Donald Trump during elections and rapidly rose in the MAGA movement. Donald Trump named him Director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel following his November 2024 victory.