Tellis, who is reportedly close to being selected as President Trump’s United States ambassador to India, supported Clinton for president to undermine Trump during the campaign as part of a group of Republicans who tried to tank his candidacy post-primary. Tellis has even been openly opposed to the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine, making the news he is even being considered for the top diplomatic position in one of the biggest countries in the world even more puzzling.
Tellis, 55, is a former Bush administration White House official and former senior adviser at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi from 2001 to 2003. He also worked on the National Security Council as a special assistant to president George W. Bush, and as senior director for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia during the early part of the Bush administration. He is an Indian scholar who went on be a senior fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other positions.
