In mid-March Sebastian Gorka, the White House’s senior director for counterterrorism, took the stage at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. The think tank has served as the inner sanctum of the foreign policy establishment for more than a century: the place where a bipartisan collection of diplomats and strategists planned much of the postwar international order, and where Henry Kissinger published his first bestseller. Throughout its history the Council has prided itself on the collegial tone of its gatherings; its meeting guidelines state that “all participants are expected to maintain the highest levels of civility and respect.” And yet here was Gorka, a MAGA diehard known for threatening journalists and disparaging Islam, discussing the administration’s counterterrorism strategy with the PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin.

Gorka started by attacking Joe Kent, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, who had just resigned from the Trump administration over the 2026 Iran war,…