Tata Tapped to Perform Duties of Defense Undersecretary for Policy

President Trump’s deeply controversial nominee to become the top policy official at the Pentagon, rejected by the Senate over the summer, will now assume the post following the resignation of former acting policy chief James Anderson earlier on Tuesday. 

“Effective immediately, and while the position of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy is vacant and there is no Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Mr. Anthony Tata, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, is delegated the authority of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and is directed to perform the duties of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy,” Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller wrote in a Nov. 10 memo obtained by Defense One. 

Tata, a retired Army brigadier general who became a novelist and a Fox News commentator, has drawn fire for past remarks falsely calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and a Muslim. Although Democrats were unified in their opposition to his nomination from the beginning, several GOP members of the panel also expressed discomfort with him during his confirmation process, and it was that discomfort that jolted his nomination off the tracks. 

Tata at that point was ineligible to become acting policy chief — but because he has now served as as a so-called “first assistant” for 90 days, he may now assume the role.