Eric Trager, currently a staff member for Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow, is set to be the National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa in the new Trump administration, two sources familiar with the selection told Jewish Insider.

Brett McGurk, who has played a key role in shaping the Biden administration’s Middle East policy, is currently the NSC coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

Trager, whose research has focused on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, has also previously served as a staff member for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Middle East and North Africa issues and as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan, the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania. 

He authored a 2016 book, Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days, assessing the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 2010s, the state of Egyptian politics and the possibility of a Muslim brotherhood resurgence. The book included interviews with Muslim Brotherhood leaders including former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

He has also written about Qatar’s role in the Middle East and Doha’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, on his Twitter account, Trager has reposted comments from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Rick Scott (R-FL) about the conflict in the Middle East, particularly the plight of the hostage families and criticism of the Biden administration’s Gaza pier operation, withholding of aid from Israel, calls for a cease-fire and U.S. southern border policy.

He also re-shared criticisms of the Qatari government — characterizing officials in Doha as aiding Hamas and calling on the Gulf nation to expel Hamas leaders — and of the Lebanese Armed Forces. His most recent re-post, from May 2024, was of Wicker condemning the International Criminal Court prosecutor for seeking arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

While at The Washington Institute, Trager urged members of Congress not to meet with Muslim Brotherhood officials, describing them as an extremist hate group, and criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration for failing to properly manage its relationship with Egypt when it blocked the provision of millions in aid.

He praised Trump’s 2017 speech in Riyadh calling on Muslim leaders to take strong action against Islamist terrorist groups.

Trager graduated from Harvard University and has an MA from the American University in Cairo, where he focused on Islamic legal reform, and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on Egyptian opposition to then-President Hosni Mubarak, including fieldwork during the Tahrir Square uprising.

Trager and the Trump team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Clarification: An initial version of this story stated that Trager’s title would be coordinator, the title held by McGurk. Trager’s title will be senior director for the Middle East and North Africa.