This Freshman Republican Wants to Take Back NatSec

Mike Gallagher, a telegenic and perhaps idealistic freshman member of Congress, took his first turn in the Beltway spotlight this spring when he scolded President Donald Trump for sharing highly classified intelligence with Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting.

The Wisconsin Republican conceded in a series of tweets that as commander in chief, Trump had the authority to declassify intelligence. But he questioned the new president for sharing such sensitive information with an adversarial country.

“Our allies and partners must have the utmost confidence that sensitive information they share with us will not be disclosed,” Gallagher tweeted. “Regardless of what was shared in the meeting, it’s dangerous to believe that Russia can be a reliable counterterrorism partner.”

Gallagher is a former military intelligence officer. He came to Congress after shaping policy behind the scenes because he decided he wanted to put his experience to work. He doesn't toe the party line, so this first episode with the president may be a harbinger of what is to come for his time in Washington.

His Twitter rebuke of Trump was emblematic of the careful balancing act many congressional Republicans have to strike in the current political environment: supporting the president’s agenda while holding him accountable for controversial missteps.

“I’m willing to work with them,” Gallagher said, “but I don’t work for them.”

Despite contending with an administration wracked with controversy, leaks, and a tumultuous session thus far in Congress, Gallagher sees some reason for optimism.

Mike Likes Ike

He has been encouraged by the Trump administration’s approach to national security, going so far as to say Trump’s Cabinet was “one of the best teams that I can remember, at least going back to the '50s with [Dwight] Eisenhower.”

Gallagher is an unabashed fan of the 34th president. He even modeled some of his campaign material after the classic “I like Ike” posters from Eisenhower's 1952 race, changing the slogan to “I like Mike.”

Like his political hero, Gallagher spent time in the military before entering politics, which has given him a healthy passion for foreign policy and defense.

Gallagher served seven years of active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed twice to the Anbar province in Iraq, where he directed intelligence teams. He later worked on Gen. David Petraeus’s Central Command (CENTCOM) Assessment Team and in the intelligence community afterward.

He helped shape U.S. foreign policy while working for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and worked as a national security adviser to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his bid for the presidency last year.

His combined experiences drove him to run for the House.

Greater Foreign Policy Role for Congress

In an interview with Independent Journal Review, Gallagher recalled a 2015 trip as a congressional staffer to an Iraqi town where he had served during his 2008 deployment. In that original tour, the town was safe enough to walk around without armor.

Seven years later, it had been overrun by ISIS. Gallagher attributes the town’s misfortunes to a slide in U.S. foreign policy he saw firsthand. He wanted a more central role in shaping that policy.

“Congress has been derelict in its duties and has really surrendered all this constitutional responsibility to the executive branch. I think we would do well to claw some of that back,” he said

And now that is his greatest priority, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry to the United States.

“We need people to step up: people from diverse backgrounds, military, business,” Gallagher said in the interview. “I think the more we have different people from different walks of life committed to the idea of citizen service, willing to serve for a period of time and then go back home, the better off we'll be.”

Independent Thinker

But Gallagher has had some challenges adjusting to life as a lawmaker.

When he was the lead Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer focused on the Middle East, North Africa, and counterterrorism, he was better able to call the shots.

Corker, his former boss, said Gallagher often marched into his office with a black-and-white plan for approaching the range of policy issues he oversaw. And that approach suited his take-charge personality well.

“Now he’s in the position I’ve been in the whole time, and I hope he’s enjoying it," Corker joked, explaining that his apprentice now has to face voting yes or no on nuanced bills that have myriad drawbacks.

Despite the young congressman's quick rise, the Tennessee senator was reluctant to describe Gallagher as ambitious.

He predicted Gallagher would dig into issues, even if it means ticking off the Republican leadership.

"People who are ambitious don’t burn any political capital. They’re always touting only the party line,” Corker said. “I don’t see Mike Gallagher being that. He’s going to be an independent thinker.”

Indeed, Gallagher indicated being a political insider isn't his goal. He said he hopes to be living in a Door County, Wisconsin, cabin 20 years from now, passing the time writing and teaching.

Ethics Reform and Term Limits

Second only to his defense priorities are Gallagher's hopes for congressional ethics reform. He supports term limits for members of Congress, and in April, he sponsored a bipartisan bill that would limit elected officials to 12 years in the House and 12 years in the Senate.

Gallagher conceded his and his freshman colleagues' enthusiasm for congressional reform might fizzle out over time.

It may be too early to tell, but Benji Backer, a friend and constituent of Gallagher’s, said his new high-stakes job in the nation’s capital hasn’t changed him yet.

“You feel like you’re talking to somebody who is just like you ... sometimes he can be like a mature college kid," Backer said.

At the young age of 33, Gallagher is just a few months older than the youngest member of Congress, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

He's quick to a joke, and can seamlessly transition from chatting about pop culture to launching into an in-depth analysis of complex social and historical trends.

“Gallagher is a young, good-looking, hard-working guy,” Corker told me. “I always loved asking and inquiring about his personal life. Let me just put it that way. I enjoyed kidding him about it, which I did often. Matter of fact, almost every policy meeting that we had, I would begin with that.”

That's not Gallagher's top priority, though. Right now he’s got a classic case of Beltway workaholism and dynamism: He believes there is a 10-year window in which Congress can help reverse what he sees as negative trends in United States policy.

“I want to give it everything I have and do as much as I can, and then go home,” Gallagher said.

But he admits he doesn’t always end up where he expects to.

“It’s funny, at one point in my life I thought I was a planner, but I never seem to wind up where my three-year plan contends,” Gallagher said. “Just work hard, and opportunities come your way, I guess.”