President Donald Trump tapped longtime advisor, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg ’66 to serve as the Special Presidential Envoy for Russia and Ukraine just as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year. The three-star general previously served as national security advisor to former Vice President Mike Pence and as chief of staff of the United States National Security Council in the first Trump administration.
At Santa Clara University, Kellogg played on the football team and served in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), through which he was commissioned into the Army and subsequently served in Vietnam.
In his most recent post as co-chairman of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg last year wrote in the group’s policy book that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”
Following a contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February, Kellogg spoke at an event for the Council on Foreign Relations and made remakrs about the U.S. decision to cut off intelligence and military aid in Kyiv. “Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,” he said. The freeze was later lifted when Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.