By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-08-16 15:36:50 | Updated at 2026-08-16 15:47:12
22 minutes ago
U.S. Vice President JD Vance motorcade at the Serena Hotel shortly after his arrival at Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 11, 2026. Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty Images
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Andrew Baker will exit the Trump administration in the coming weeks.
“I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved and, of course, am incredibly grateful to the President, Vice President and Secretary [Marco] Rubio,” Baker wrote in a statement on Aug. 14. “I'll never be far away.”
Baker was appointed Jan. 20, 2025, the White House said. He supported a more restrained U.S. foreign policy and questioned extended American involvement in foreign conflicts. He also helped write Vice President JD Vance’s 2025 Munich Security Conference speech, in which Vance criticized European leaders over censorship and what he described as democratic backsliding.
Baker was part of the U.S. delegation that participated in negotiations with Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, in April.
The White House said Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner made up the core U.S. delegation for the talks. Baker and Michael Vance, a special adviser to the vice president for Asian affairs, were part of the broader delegation. The in-person talks included representatives from the United States, Iran, and Pakistan.
The White House identified Baker at the time as deputy national security adviser to the president and national security adviser to the vice president.
Baker also accompanied Vance on a diplomatic trip to Armenia and Azerbaijan in February.
Baker participated in an expanded bilateral meeting between Vance and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Feb. 9, according to information provided by the White House. The U.S. delegation also included Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg and other administration officials.
The following day, Baker joined Vance for an expanded bilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, economy minister, and energy minister were among the officials representing the country.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya publicly thanked Baker in February for his role in the effort to release political prisoners in Belarus, along with President Donald Trump, U.S. diplomat John Coale, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Eastern Europe at the State Department Christopher Smith.
“We are grateful for the diplomatic efforts” of the Trump administration that helped secure the prisoners’ release, Tsikhanouskaya wrote in a post on X.
Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the disputed 2020 presidential election, has become a prominent international opponent of his government.
Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his deputy, Alex Wong, left their positions in May 2025.
Waltz’s departure followed criticism over his involvement in a Signal group chat in March 2025. Waltz had mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, a senior editor at The Atlantic, in the chat. Goldberg subsequently reported that administration officials had discussed U.S. airstrikes in Yemen in the group.
The White House did not respond to an email from The Epoch Times seeking comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
