SRIRAM KRISHNAN TO HELP PRESIDENT TRUMP IN AI POLICY
US President Donald Trump wrote on X: I am pleased to announce the brilliant Team that will be working in conjunction with our White House AI & Crypto Czar, David O. Sacks. Together, we will unleash scientific breakthroughs, ensure America’s technological dominance, and usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation!
One of the key members of the Team is Sriram Krishnan. He will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI, and help shape and coordinate AI policy across the Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Responding to Trump’s announcement, Krishnan in a post on X, wrote, “I’m honored to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI. Thank you, Donald Trump, for this opportunity.”
Who is Sriram Krishnan?
Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure. Krishnan has served in the product design space for over two decades. He has held key positions in firms, including Microsoft, where he began in the year 2005, later moved to Facebook for around 3 years, leading the product strategy.
He has also served at Snap and Twitter leading consumer product teams.
In his personal capacity, he has been an advisor to firms such as Figma, Notion, Cameo, Coda Scale.ai, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and CRED, among others.
On December 22, 2024, US Media reported articles and statements that he had shared earlier on various publications and platforms. One of them wrote that Krishnan expressed a few of his views on current AI trends in an opinion piece last year in The New York Times. He called for “a fundamentally different mechanism” for websites to “exchange” value with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI-powered chatbots.
“Large internet sites are fighting back against AI models with the internet equivalent of raising the castle drawbridge,” he said, referring to user protests on Reddit and Stack Exchange and those platforms’ data licensing programs.
“Some industry experts believe the answers are in legal action and older sites forming content alliances. As a technologist, my hope is that the answers lie in code rather than lawyers and that we see creative technology solutions to help keep the internet open.”
KASHYAP P. PATEL (KASH) DIRECTOR OF THE FBI
Kash Patel served as the former Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and is responsible for leading the Secretary’s mission at the Department, including his executive staff and providing counsel to the Secretary on all matters concerning the Department’s operations.
Previously, Patel served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism (CT) at the National Security Council (NSC). In that capacity, Patel oversaw the execution of several of President Donald J. Trump’s top priorities, including eliminating ISIS and Al-Qa’ida leadership such as al-Baghdadi and Qasem al-Rimi, and the safe repatriation of numerous American hostages.
Patel also served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence, where he oversaw the operations of all 17 intelligence community agencies and provided the President’s Daily Briefing.
Before joining the NSC, Patel served as the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), where he spearheaded the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. Concurrently, he oversaw sensitive programs for the Intelligence Community and US Special Operations Forces and worked to enact legislation to fully fund the multi-billion dollar budgets supporting intelligence and counterterrorism operations worldwide.
Patel joined the HPSCI following his tenure as a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he led investigations spanning multiple theatres of conflict and oversaw the successful prosecution of criminals aligned with Al-Qa’ida, ISIS, and other terror groups. He also served as the DOJ Liaison Officer to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), working with our nation’s most prestigious counterterrorism units to conduct collaborative global targeting operations against high-value terrorism targets.
Mr. Patel began his career as a public defender, trying scores of complex cases ranging from murder to narco-trafficking to complex financial crimes in jury trials in state and federal courts.
A native of New York, Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to earn his law degree, along with a Certificate in International Law from University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom. Kash is a lifelong ice hockey player, coach, and fan.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump called Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”
The 44-year-old Patel served in intelligence and defense roles in Trump’s first term, including from chief of staff to Secretary of defense. Trump also designated him to be a representative of the National Archives and Records Administration and testified before a federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
A staunch Trump loyalist, he rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, who was fighting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Patel published a 2023 book titled “Government Gangsters,” which received praise from Trump. Patel writes that the “FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken.”
“This is the roadmap to end the Deep State’s reign,” Trump said on Truth Social about the book in September 2023.
D DR. JAY BHATTACHARYA CARING FOR NATIONAL HEALTH
President Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Notably, Bhattacharya was a critic of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bhattacharya would inherit the position from Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, who President Biden appointed. Bhattacharya is an economist from Kolkata with medical studies at Stanford University. A research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Bhattacharya also directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.
His broader interests include the impact of population ageing on health and medical spending, the measurement of physician performance linked to payment systems and the influence of biomedical innovation on health, according to Stanford University.
On November 26, 2024, President- Elect Donald Trump nominated Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., as the 18th National Institutes of Health (NIH) director. The nomination awaits confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Bhattacharya received his medical degree from Stanford in 1997 and a doctorate degree in economics from Stanford in 2000. He has held professorship positions at Stanford since 2001, as well as research positions there and elsewhere during this time, including at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Acumen. He also is a former research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford.
Before the pandemic, Bhattacharya was “best known as a researcher who led Stanford’s Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, writing papers on Medicare policy and behavioural economics, and serving on NIH review panels,” the Post reported.
The NIH, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives.
The position of the NIH Director became presidentially appointed with the passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971, and the Senate confirmed with the National Cancer Act Amendments of 1974. Prior to 1971, all NIH Directors were appointed by the Surgeon General, with the exception of Robert Q. Marston, who the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare appointed.
Acting Directors are selected by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and hold the position until the President nominates a new director, which the Senate confirms. For more than a century, NIH scientists and supported scientists have paved the way for important discoveries that improve health and save lives. In fact, hundreds of scientists who won the Nobel Prize conducted their work at NIH or were supported by NIH funds. Their studies have led to the development of MRI, an understanding of how viruses can cause cancer, insights into cholesterol control, and knowledge of how our brain processes visual information, among dozens of other advances.
KUSH DESAI, THE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY IN TRUMPS ADMIN
Kush Desai will serve as a Deputy Press Secretary after serving as Deputy Battleground States & Pennsylvania Communications Director at the Republican National Committee.
Desai also served as Deputy Communications Director for the 2024 Republican National Convention and Communications Director for the Republican Party of Iowa.
The Office of Press Operations supports the President and Secretary of State by explaining the foreign policy of the United States and the positions of the Department of State to domestic and foreign journalists. The office also provides logistical support and expertise to the Secretary of State and other Department officials for events involving media coverage/ participation.
Specifically, the Press Office responds to press queries, conducts media interviews, monitors media for breaking international events, and coordinates special press briefings and conference calls. They also support the Secretary of State’s public events in addition to those of the Deputy Secretary and other senior Department officials.
In addition, the Press Office coordinates interview requests from the national media for senior State Department officials other than the Secretary of State. The staff proactively pitches interviews on a wide variety of issues to national media outlets and places editorials in major U.S. newspapers.
According to NRI Pulse, website, Desai is a seasoned political strategist with a journalism background, Desai brings significant experience to the role. He previously served as Deputy Communications Director for the 2024 Republican National Convention and as Communications Director for the Republican Party of Iowa. His work at the Republican National Committee (RNC) as Deputy Battleground States and Pennsylvania Communications Director helped shape messaging strategies in key battleground states during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
The website further informs that Desai’s roots in journalism began at The Daily Caller, where he worked as a reporter from 2017 to 2018. He later trasitioned into political communications, leveraging his understanding of the media landscape to craft strategic messaging for Republican campaigns.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Desai earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and was recognized as a James O. Freedman Presidential Research Scholar. Fluent in both English and Gujarati, he credits his bicultural background for shaping his world view and communication skills, the website reported.
Desai’s appointment is significant as he joins a growing list of Indian-Americans serving in high-profile positions in the U.S. government. In his new role, he will assist in shaping the administration’s public messaging and maintaining communication with the media.
TULSI GABBARD, THE EYES AND EARS OF PRESIDENT ON NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Gabbard, Tulsi, is the Presidential nominee for the post of director of national intelligence. A Representative from Hawaii, born in Leloaloa, American Samoa, on April 12, 1981. She did her B.S.B.A. from Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2009.
She was a member of the Hawaii State House of Representatives 2002- 2004. She also served in the Hawaii Army National Guard from 2003 to 2020; United States Army Reserve, 2020. Tulsi was staff, Senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka of Hawaii; member of the Honolulu, Hawaii, city council, 2010-2012; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Thirteenth and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2013-January 3, 2021). She was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress in 2020 and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
A combat veteran, 4-term member of Congress, and 2020 presidential candidate, Tulsi loves her country. An Independent, Tulsi calls on those who love America to stand up for peace, defend freedom and protect our democratic republic from those seeking to undermine it at every turn. “It’s time to leave the Democrat party behind,” she wrote on her Facebook while leaving the Party.
Gabbard, in 2002, became the youngest person elected to serve in Hawaii’s state legislature at the age of 21. She joined the Army National Guard in 2003 and served a year in Iraq, then joined the Army Reserve in 2020. She represented Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021 and was seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party early in her political career. She ran for president in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing Joe Biden. She was known for clashing with other Democratic candidates, especially on foreign policy.
Tulsi’s nomination for the Director of Intelligence was not a surprise in the US political circles. Media reports suggest that President Donald Trump was impressed with her activities as a senator and the expertise she had gained while serving in the Army.
In the USA, the director of the National Intelligence post is critical for the US President. The director advises the president on intelligence issues and puts together the President’s Daily Brief, a digest of national security information.
The person appointed as DNI serves as the head of the Intelligence Community, a group of over a dozen spy agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The post was created after the September 11 attacks.