Some of the members of the administration which had think tank and other free society organizations connections:
Mike Pence: Vice President, former head of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Participated at several events sponsored by Atlas, Heritage, Council for National Policy, among others.
Lawrence "Larry" Kudlow: Director of the National Economic Council, has been affiliated with Empower America, Freedom Works, and other free-market think tanks
Kevin Allen Hassett: Former Searle fellow at AEI, the 29th chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.(2017-2019) '
Kiron Skinner: Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, (2018-2019) at the time of the appointment she was Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, Trustee at Grove City College (whee she took a leave of absence). Presented a paper at the 2016 Mont Pelerin Society Meeting in Miami. Now also affiliated with Heritage Foundation.
Tyler Beck Goodspeed: Senior Economist, Council of Economics Advisers, presented a paper at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Miami 2016 and also during the Hoover 2020 meeting.
Betsy DeVos: Secretary of Education, for ten years trustee at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids Michigan, resigned after the January 6th, 2020 riots at the Capitol.
Elaine Chao: Secretary of Labor, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, former senior Distinguished Fellow at Heritage Foundation, resigned after the January 6th, 2020 riots at the Capitol.
Adam Kissel: former deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs (2017-2019), formerly of the Koch Foundation and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. He now joined the Philanthropy Roundtable
Ken Blackwell: Member of the Bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, member of the board of Grove City College, and Family Research Council (and several others), stayed until in the end
Adam Lerrick Currently serving as Counselor at the Treasury for International Finance. Former director of the Galliot Center at Carnegie Mellon University (2001-2009). More recently he has been a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focused on international economic issues. He is known for his work on international financial crises, particularly in Greece, Cyprus, Iceland, and Argentina, where he led the negotiation team of the largest foreign creditor in the restructuring of the country’s $100 billion debt. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.B. in economics from Princeton University. His earlier studies in mathematics were done in France. He worked closely with Allan Meltzer and Henry Galliot (both Mont Pelerin Society Members)
Mark Anthony Calabria, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, former chief economist for Vice President Michael Pence, prior to that he was director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. Ph.D. from George Mason University. His doctoral advisor was Richard Wagner. stayed until the end
Jerry Ellig: Chief economist for the Federal Communications Commission, had been at Mercatus, at George Mason University, since 1996.
Sebastian Gorka: Resigned, week of August 21-25, 2017 his position was "new" so the White House never released a formal explanation. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President. He had a think tank in Hungary supported by Atlas, The Earhart Foundation and others. He was a speaker at one of the VIP receptions prior to an Atlas Freedom Dinner. Recently appointed to a National Security Education Board.
Katharine Cornell Gorka: Former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. Former director of the Westminster Institute, McLean, VA. Married to Sebastian Gorka. Now at the Heritage Foundation
Victoria Coates is a member of the Donald Trump administration’s National Security Council, where she is senior director for strategic assessments. former director of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
David Kreutzer, former Heritage senior research fellow, energy economics and climate change.While at Heritage, Kreutzer worked to bring President Obama’s radical EPA back into line with its purpose of protecting land, air, and water – not seizing control of the economy. Kreutzer is now working on a “beachhead team” within the EPA
James Sherk, former Heritage research fellow, labor economics. Sherk’s research has helped right-to-work states resist union coercion and bad labor policy. Sherk will now take on a role at the Department of Labor.
Justin Johnson, former Heritage senior policy analyst for defense budgeting policy. While at Heritage, Johnson conducted important research on how to achieve a fully-equipped, combat-ready military, as outlined in his recent Heritage report “Congress Should Enact a Strong Defense Budget in FY 2017.” Johnson will now be working on related matters at the Pentagon.
Nick Yonkovich, former Heritage staff accountant. Yonkovich is serving on a beachhead team at the Department of Transportation.
Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman, delivered the keynote address at the libertarian Reason Foundation, November 9, 2017
Wayne Leighton, former head of the Antigua Forum, at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala. Chief Of FCC Office Of Strategic Planning And Policy Analysis
Michael Costigan, former Heritage senior advisor for strategic outreach. Costigan is currently a member of a beachhead team within the Department of Commerce and will soon be serving as assistant to the Secretary of Commerce.
Ryan Nichols, former associate director of coalition relations at Heritage. Over the past five years, Nichols has helped unite and strengthen the conservative movement. He is working on a beachhead team within the Department of Interior.
Russ Vought, former Heritage Action vice president of grassroots outreach. At Heritage Action, Vought helped rally conservatives around a vision of a dramatically downsized federal government. He will now take on a high-level position within the Office of Management and Budget.
Paul Teller: Deputy Assistant to the President, then occupied a similar position with VP Pence. Member of the Philadelphia Society.
David R. Malpass: President of the World Bank, former trustee of Manhattan Institute, past undersecretary for international affairs in the United States Department of the Treasury. He served as Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Ronald Reagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush, In the latter position he was a great champion of free trade from "Alaska to Tierra del Fuego"
Neomi Rao Now approved as a Judge, Rao was the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. New Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth: Assistant Secretary of Transportation, Research and Technology. From the Manhattan Institute, founded by Antony Fisher, her book won the 2016 Fisher Award from the Atlas Network.
Jon B. Perdue he worked for the Fund for American Studies and also for the Center for a Secure Free Society. He is a special assistant at the Department of the Treasury for the Trump administration
Paul Winfree, former director of Heritage’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.Winfree, well known in Washington for his tough stance on fiscal responsibility and transparent budgeting was one of the first Heritage appointments to be publicly announced as a member of the new administration. He is now serving as deputy assistant to the president, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, and director of budget policy.
Ann Conant, former executive assistant to the vice president of the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity. Conant is serving as assistant to Paul Winfree on President Trump’s Domestic Policy Council.
Nicholas G. Hahn III Director of Speechwriting at the Department of Education. Was the Assistant Editorial Page Editor of The Detroit News. Prior to joining the editorial board of the News, Nicholas was editor of RealClearReligion.org, and served in Donald Rumsfeld's Washington, D.C. office. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Catholic Studies from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. While at DePaul, Nicholas was a Phillips Foundation Ronald Reagan College Leaders Scholar and was named among the 2006-2007 Top Ten Campus Conservative Activists by Young America's Foundation.
Sergio de la Peña: Born in Chihuauha, Mexico, he is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He is responsible for security, defense, and policy issues in the region, as well as overseeing the funding of defense cooperation programs for U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command. Among other places where he worked for the US Army: Chile and Venezuela. He has collaborated with the Center for a Secure Free Society.Resigned October 2020, and is now running for Governor of Virginia in the Republican Party.
Michael Rigas: Deputy Director of the Office of Personel Management, he worked at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he focused on advancing free-market and limited government public policy solutions.
Candice Jackson: deputy assistant secretary of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. described as ultra right libertarian by the socialists she did an internship at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
President Trump's appointments to relevant organizations
Judy Shelton: Executive Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the United States. A former fellow at the Hoover Institution and current senior fellow of the Atlas Network. Was nominated to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank, her vote never came to the Senate floor.
Nominated towards the end of his term:
Will Ruger, affiliated with several Koch Foundation organization, as Ambassador to Afghanistan
Ken Weinstein, former CEO of the Hudson Institute, as Ambassador to Japan (dropped)
A. Wess Mitchell is President & CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), nominated to become Assistant Secretary of State, European and Eurasian Affairs.
Top candidates for nomination:
Marvin Goodfriend: for Fed board, formerly with the Galliot Center at Carnegie Mellon, here the bio from the Bundesbank
Other nominations (not think tank related)
Recommended by Peter Thiel:
Michael Kratsios, former chief of staff of Thiel was named Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Executive Office of the President, The White House
a graduate of Princeton University
Kevin Harrington, joined the National Security Council as deputy assistant to the president.
Justin Mikolay, special assistant to General Mattis, Secretary of Defense (Palantir related)