Victoria Coates is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. In the Donald J. Trump administration, Victoria served as Senior Policy Advisor and Special Representative for the Middle East to Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Middle Eastern and North African Affairs on the National Security Council (NSC).
Victoria also served on the NSC as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Middle East, for International Negotiations, and for Strategic Communications. Victoria was National Security Advisor to Senator Ted Cruz (TX) from 2013-17; previously she was a senior foreign policy advisor to (then) Governor of Texas Rick Perry’s 2012 Republican primary campaign, and Director of Research to (former) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (2007-11).
Victoria has a PhD in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art (Encounter Books, 2016). Her second book, Seeing the Light: A History of Christianity in Twelve Works of Art is under contract with Encounter Books.
Victoria’s work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Washington Times, The Jerusalem Post, and National Review.