Michael Anton | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| 33rdDirector of Policy Planning | |
| In office January 20, 2025 – September 15, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Salman Ahmed |
| Succeeded by | Michael Needham |
| 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[1][2] Sarah Tinsley[1][2] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1969 (age 55–56) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | University of California, Davis (BA) St. John's College, Annapolis (MALA) Claremont Graduate University (MA) |
Michael Anton (born 1969) is a conservative writer and bureaucrat.
Anton wrote under a pseudonym "TheFlight 93 Election," an influential essay in support ofDonald Trump during the2016 presidential campaign.[3] He was a speechwriter forRupert Murdoch, a director of communications atCitigroup, and a managing director atBlackRock. He lectured atHillsdale College, and still is aClaremont Institute senior fellow. He contributed toProject 2025.[4]
Anton was thedirector of policy planning in thesecond Trump administration, anddeputy assistant for strategic communications on theNational Security Council during thefirst. He wrote speeches forRudy Giuliani, and forCondoleezza Rice at theNational security council underGeorge W. Bush. Anton also worked for California governorPete Wilson.[5]
Anton is ofItalian andLebanese descent. He grew up inLoomis, California, anexurb ofSacramento. He received his bachelor's degree from theUniversity of California, Davis,[6] and earned advanced degrees fromSt. John's College and theClaremont Graduate University.[7][8]
Anton was a speechwriter and press secretary for New York MayorRudy Giuliani. He later took a mid-level job at theUnited States National Security Council (NSC) in the administration of PresidentGeorge W. Bush. He worked as the press secretary of national security advisorCondoleezza Rice. In 2005, Anton left the U.S. government and became a speechwriter forRupert Murdoch atNews Corp. He then worked as director of communications at theinvestment bankCitigroup, and a year and a half as managing director of investing firmBlackRock.[8][9][7]
Anton joined the U.S. National Security Council as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications in February 2017.[10] He resigned on April 8, 2018, the evening beforeJohn R. Bolton became Trump's national security advisor.[11][12][13][14] He then joinedHillsdale College's Kirby Center Graduate School of Government.[15]
In December 2020, Trump appointed Anton to a four-year term on theNational Board for Education Sciences, which advises theDepartment of Education on scientific research and investments.[16][17]
According toThe Washington Post in November 2024, Anton was a leading candidate to be deputy national security advisor under President-elect Donald Trump's second term, but removed himself from consideration after learning the National Security Council would include a position forSebastian Gorka.[18] In December 2024, President-elect Trump nominated Anton to serve as thedirector of policy planning at the US State Department.[19] Anton participated in the2025 Iran-United States negotiations at the expert level.[20]
In August 2025, Anton was set to leave the Department of State after having written the national security strategy;[21] sources toldPolitico that Anton grew frustrated withSergio Gor and foreign policy processes of the administration.[22]
Anton is considered to be a notable West CoastStraussian, as a student ofLeo Strauss by way of tutorHarry V. Jaffa.[23] Anton hascontributed toProject 2025.[24]
Anton has derided American diversity in his writing, arguing in a pseudonymous March 2016 essay that "'Diversity' is not 'our strength'; it's a source of weakness, tension and disunion."[25] In the same essay, written under the pseudonymPublius Decius Mus (after the ancientRoman consul), Anton defendedDonald Trump's use of the slogan "America First" by arguing that theAmerica First Committee (which included prominentantisemites and opposed the United States enteringWorld War II) had been "unfairly maligned."[26] He also argued thatIslam "is a militant faith", and that "only an insane society" would take in Muslim immigrants after the9/11 attacks.[27]
Hispseudonymous September 2016 editorial "TheFlight 93 Election", published in theClaremont Review of Books, compared the prospect ofconservatives lettingHillary Clinton win the2016 United States presidential election with passengers not charging the cockpit of theUnited Airlines aircraft hijacked byAl-Qaeda in the9/11 attacks.[28][29][30][31][32][33][25][34] In the essay, Anton criticized conservatives who were skeptical ofDonald Trump,[35] and he also decried the "ceaseless importation ofThird World foreigners," called for "no more importing poverty, crime, and alien cultures", called the idea ofIslamophobia and theBlack Lives Matter movement "inanities", and argued that theAmerican left was waging "wars on 'cis-genderism'".[35][36]Rush Limbaugh devoted the bulk of a radio show in September 2016 to a reading of the editorial.[37]
In 2019, Anton turned his essay into a book, titledAfter the Flight 93 Election: The Vote that Saved America and What We Still Have to Lose. In it he argued that Trump constituted "the first serious national-political defense of theConstitution in a generation."[35] Trump praised the book.[35] According toCarlos Lozada, Anton primarily added to his 2016 editorial long rants against the liberalism.[35] Lozada wrote, "Anton spends virtually no time detailing or defending particular policies of the Trump administration; all that matters is the enemy. For Anton, Hillary Clinton is no longer the chief nemesis—the entire left is, along with sellout conservatives and any other forces countering the president. They contribute to a 'spiritual sickness' and 'existential despair' pervading not just the United States but all the West ... Apparently, Flight 93 did not end with the 2016 vote; we are forever on the plane, endlessly in danger, no matter who has seized the controls."[35]
Anton is known as a critic ofbirthright citizenship in the United States, arguing that theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not mandatejus soli ("right of the soil") citizenship, and that the Amendment's use of the provision "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" excludes children born of illegal aliens.[38][non-primary source needed] An analysis of Anton's arguments by Neil Goldfarb inLanguage Log said they are predicated on a quotation from SenatorJacob Howard whose meaning Anton inverted by adding the word "or".[39][independent source needed]
In September 2020, Anton wrote an essay titled "The Coming Coup?" inThe American Mind; in the essay, Anton suggested that Democrats, aided byGeorge Soros, were planning acoup d'état to take over the United States[26][40] by way of a domesticcolor revolution coordinated by the so-calledDeep State and influential operatives of the Democratic Party.[41] The widely shared article was called a tipping point in spreading the false claim, which was further popularized byThe Federalist, DJHJ Media andDan Bongino.[40] Anton has referred to the U.S. commitment to defendTaiwan as a "Cold War relic," stating that it is not in the interest of the U.S. to defend it.[42]
Anton wrote an essay inThe American Mind on rhetoric strategies.[43] In it he coined the term "celebration parallax" to describe a feature of political discourse, by which the merit of what is said depends on who says it. Right-wing political commentatorJeremy Carl went on to complain about the phenomenon regarding mass immigration.[44]
In his 2020 book,The Stakes, Anton developed the concept of "red caesarism": the idea that the republic is only safeguarded by an elected strong man "form of one-man rule: halfway ... between monarchy and tyranny".[45] According to this doctrine, "Caesar's word replaces constitutionalism and even, in the final analysis, law".[24]
Anton said he is a classically trainedchef and a francophile; after resigning from the National Security Council in 2018, he worked one last day as aline cook to prepare a state dinner forEmmanuel Macron.[46]
Anton has written over 40,000 posts on Styleforum.net, focusing on tailoring and classic menswear.[47][48] Under the pseudonym "Nicholas Antongiavanni", he wrote in 2006The Suit, aparody ofNiccolò Machiavelli'sThe Prince.[49]
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.
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