At least one individual named to the State Department presidential transition landing team is raising alarm bells among MAGA loyalists, as he has a long history of promoting pro-immigration and pro-Ukraine military aid policies. Tyler Brace, who served as a key aide to former Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)—a globalist and staunch opponent of President-elect Donald J. Trump—is set to serve on the landing team which will begin hiring and onboarding political appointees at the critical foreign policy agency.
While serving on former Sen. Portman’s staff, Brace—a legislative assistant—oversaw most of the globalist Ohio Republican’s foreign affairs, intelligence, homeland security, and judiciary legislative portfolio. Additionally, the then-Senate aide acted as the point of contact for the Senate Ukraine Caucus, which Portman co—chaired at the time.
Brace frequently engaged with members of the Ukrainian government and served as an election monitor in 2014. That election saw Petro Poroshenko—a politician openly hostile toward Russia—ascend to Ukraine’s presidency. Poroshenko escalated the conflict with pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s Donbas region, resulting in a Russian military incursion backing separatist control over large areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
As a Portman aide, Brace oversaw the senator’s immigration policy. Notably, Portman was an ardent critic and opponent of President Trump’s border wall in 2018. Additionally, the Ohio senator publicly opposed the Trump administration’s family separation policy, requesting that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions place a moratorium on the action.
Also of concern is Brace’s potential stance on trade issues. The State Department plays a tangential role in international trade negotiations as the government’s chief diplomatic agency. Senator Portman was one of Congress’s most outspoken opponents of tariffs. The high-level landing team role given to Brace suggests the State Department may continue to be a beachhead of resistance to the America First agenda.
No bueno. pic.twitter.com/KnLRAs8sVp
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) December 23, 2024