Michael Anton, a senior State Department official and longtime voice in the Make America Great Again movement, will reportedly leave his post this fall after playing a central role in shaping the administration’s national security strategy and leading delicate negotiations abroad.
“The Secretary is grateful for Michael’s willingness to be away from his family to serve his country,” a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday. Dismissing speculation that Anton’s exit reflected internal disagreements, the spokesperson added, “Any insinuation of friction between Anton and other key members of the administration is simply untrue.”
Anton currently serves as the State Department’s policy planning director, where he is the lead architect of the administration’s forthcoming National Security Strategy.
The lengthy report, due later this year, will detail how the administration intends to advance American interests, safeguard national security, and confront foreign challenges in what officials describe as a more dangerous global environment.
A veteran of the Trump administration, Anton worked on the National Security Council during the former president’s first term and returned this spring at the request of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio tapped him in late April to lead technical talks with Iran as the United States sought to negotiate limits on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Anton participated in the third round of nuclear talks in Muscat, Oman, alongside Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Those discussions collapsed in June after Israel struck Iranian nuclear facilities. The U.S. military followed days later with targeted strikes against Tehran’s sites, including Fordow.
In March, Anton joined Rubio, Witkoff, and then–national security adviser Mike Waltz in Riyadh for the opening round of discussions with Russian officials on a possible framework to end the war in Ukraine. The talks underscored the administration’s willingness to explore unconventional avenues toward peace while maintaining pressure on Moscow.
“In addition to his indispensable work on Ukraine and Iran, he led efforts to draft a groundbreaking National Security Strategy [NSS] that will operationalize the President’s priorities,” the State Department spokesperson said, adding that Anton will continue work on the NSS until its expected release this fall.
Anton is no stranger to the conservative intellectual movement. A former fellow at the Claremont Institute, he gained prominence after authoring The Flight 93 Election, an essay urging conservatives to rally behind Donald Trump in 2016 as a last chance to preserve the republic.
The essay became a touchstone for the America First movement, and Anton has remained one of its most articulate defenders.
Rubio praised Anton’s service in a statement Wednesday. “Michael has been a critical part of this team going back to the transition,” the secretary of state said. “I’m grateful for his service and his ongoing leadership in drafting a groundbreaking National Security Strategy that will operationalize America First foreign policy for years to come.”
Anton’s departure marks the end of a consequential tenure at the State Department. His imprint on both the administration’s foreign policy and its intellectual foundation is likely to endure long after his exit.
[READ MORE: Mayor Bowser Praises Trump’s DC Crime Surge]
