The outgoing Trump administration is set to appoint two loyalists to join the top federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Defense, Foreign Policy has learned, with less than one full day left before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, a move that could be seen as rewarding officials who remained close to the lame-duck commander in chief.
Defense Department chief of staff Kash Patel, who joined the agency just a day after President Donald Trump fired former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper via tweet in November 2020, has been nominated to join the Defense Policy Board alongside Anthony Tata. Tata left an acting position in the policy shop last week. He was installed six months ago, after conspiratorial tweets surfaced that torpedoed his bid to become undersecretary of defense for policy.
