Indian American

Indian origin, Raj Shah, has been appointed as an expert on strategic communications and political research by US President-elect Donald Trump as his deputy assistant and research director as the White House staff. Shah would also hold the post of deputy communications director.

Shah had been helping in the Trump’s campaign by highlighting the contradictions in the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s political positions and other issues such as, her handling of her private email server, which turned into a campaign issue.

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The Republican National Committee has website credited him for developing the organisation’s opposition research book on Clinton. Reince Priebus, who is going to be Trump’s chief of staff, said that Shah and the others appointed to the White House staff “will be key leaders in helping to implement the president-elect’s agenda and bring real change to Washington.

“Each of them has been instrumental over the last several months, and in some cases years, in helping the President-elect,” he added.

Shah is presently the research director and deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee and is the managing director of America Rising, a company that provides research to candidates. He specialises in opposition research, which is digging up the negative information about the candidates for use by their rivals or others.

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He had earlier worked with the White House as a research assistant during George W Bush’s presidency. He has worked in John McCain’s 2008 unsuccessful presidential campaign against President Barack Obama. Shah has worked closely with Priebus and Trump’s spokesperson Sean Spicer in the Republican National Committee. The GOP website has published Shah’s critiques and analysis of the Clinton’s past public stances, her foreign policy and Obama’s policies.

By Premji