US deputy national security adviser Andy Baker remains in the shadows, but he plays a key role in shaping the Trump administration's tough stance towards European allies and shaping the future of Republican foreign policy, Politico reports.
The only time he was in the spotlight was in March, when Vice President J.D. Vance named him as his contact during the scandal surrounding the leak of chat messages about strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Baker, the publication notes, has become a key figure in Vance's inner circle. He shapes the vice president's foreign policy thinking and some of the White House's most important national security decisions, especially regarding the United States' European allies.
And although few outside Washington and European capitals know about him, he is key to understanding Trump's foreign policy, Politico reports.
According to the publication, Baker, who is fluent in Russian, Bulgarian and Persian, played a key role in efforts to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“Andy was a key advisor involved in shaping and defining the initial contours of the Ukraine negotiations, including issues such as the minerals agreement“, said Alex Wong, Trump's former deputy national security adviser.
During the negotiations, Baker offered “practical“ and “creative ideas“ to end the conflict, according to one source.
Baker and Vance, “first, very much want the US to refrain from certain commitments that they consider unimportant to the US, and second, very much want“ to help end this conflict, the source explained.
The deputy national security adviser's approach to ending the conflict, however, has caused discontent among some US allies. One European official described him as “very smart,” but acknowledged that “his understanding of Russia differs significantly from ours.”
According to sources, Baker helped draft the speech Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025. He also played a key role in developing the new U.S. national security strategy.
Baker was also in the situation room in June, where Trump oversaw the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, and was involved in planning the campaign against the Houthis and Washington’s response to tensions between India and Pakistan.
“Andy Baker is a valued member of the president’s national security team, whose leadership and judgment are critical to advancing the president’s “America First” agenda. and have contributed significantly to the Trump administration’s historic year of foreign policy victories,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico.
Baker grew up in a working-class family in San Francisco. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley, he went on to Oxford, where he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in 2007. In 2010, Baker joined the State Department, where he remained for 13 years. He served in Afghanistan and at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“He sincerely believes that U.S. foreign policy is not being used to benefit the American people, especially the people he comes from,” one source said. Ultimately, he concluded that working people “were not being helped by Democrats who were waging wars that were causing enormous damage to other countries,” the source added.
Baker left the State Department in 2023 with the intention of finding someone who shared his view “that American power was being wasted abroad and not being used to benefit the American people,” the publication said. That’s why, the source explained, he turned to Vance. In the spring, Baker took over as deputy national security adviser amid Trump’s sweeping reorganization of the National Security Council. According to the source, his intellect has won him allies at all levels of the White House and he has become “very close” to with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“Andy Baker is a key member of President Trump's national security team and is fully committed to a realistic foreign policy that puts America first,“ a White House official said.
“Foreign governments are well acquainted with him. They want to meet with him more than anyone else when they come... because he's very easy to talk to and even though he's quite an ideological figure, he's a good conversationalist,“ one of the sources said.