Olivia Troye has lost friends and made powerful enemies since moving to Alexandria.
The former career intelligence officer made national headlines after resigning from a top post at the White House under President Donald Trump in 2020, and then speaking out against the administration. The lifelong conservative Republican went so far as to endorse former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, even spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and is a frequent anti-Trump commentator on national TV. Now living in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood, she makes public appearances at protests, publishes multiple weekly posts to more than 300,000 subscribers on her Substack, and says she’s dedicated to spending the rest of her life fighting President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Troye resigned as an advisor on the White House coronavirus task force and as counterterrorism and national security advisor to then-Vice President Mike Pence in Aug. 2020. A month later, she appeared in a video with the group Republican Voters Against Trump, and told The Washington Post that she was terrified working in the White House and that the country was facing a Constitutional crisis if Trump got reelected. The White House pushed back, with Troye’s former boss, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, telling reporters that Troye didn’t resign and was, in fact, fired due to incompetence and that she was escorted from the White House grounds by security.
Troye moved to Del Ray in 2020, not long before resigning her post. She was at the White House from May 2018 to Aug. 2020, and her decades-long career includes stints as a senior advisor with the Department of Homeland Security, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. The Texas native is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and has a degree from National Defense University.
Troye recently sat down with ALXnow to discuss her transformation from Trump loyalist to one of his most vocal critics, the personal cost of speaking out, and why she’s committed to spending the rest of her life fighting the MAGA movement.
ALXnow: How did you go from being a dedicated staffer working for the Trump administration to speaking against it at the Democratic National Convention?
Troye: It had been building for a while. I lived all four years of the Trump administration, very much firsthand. I spent the first two years of it, almost two years at the Department of Homeland Security in a very senior role, and the first executive orders out of the gate were the travel ban, a lot of the more controversial things that happened during the first Trump administration against the Muslim countries, the whole calling African countries S-holes and stuff like that.
I was there for so many of the controversies during the first Trump administration. From day one, I lived all of it. I was in meetings with the Taliban. There’s certainly a lot that we navigated in the intelligence community when we faced a lot of the situations that they were pressing for. And then I get asked about taking an assignment in Vice President Pence’s office. I go and I meet with staff. It was (Pence’s former National Security Advisor, Keith) Kellogg who actually made the final decision to hire me.
ALXnow: After you went public against the administration, Kellogg told reporters that you were fired for incompetence and were escorted from the building.
Troye: He knows that’s not true, and I knew the second that I saw him walk into the White House press room that’s what he was going to say, because he had nothing he could do. It’s my understanding that Trump was losing his mind in the Oval Office when I came forward. He was really angry, obviously, for my bluntness when I came forward as a Trump critic. And I had known Kellogg since we were deployed in Baghdad together, so we knew each other since 2003.
I was diligent in my work, like I was the person that the White House Sit. (Situation) Room would call and wake up, and Kellogg delegated to me as national security advisor to the vice president, so he fully knows that. I also had a conversation with Kellogg about my decision and that I was going to inform the vice president that I was going to resign, and Kellogg said he understood where I was coming from. He also told me that I was writing the wrong coattails and that Pence would never be president, and I think at that moment, I realized that we had fundamental differences in the way we viewed the roles, because I was not trying to ride coattails. I was literally trying to do my job, just basically to survive and serve him (Pence) well.
ALXnow: Kellogg also read a letter to reporters from you stating how much of an honor it was working with them.
Troye: So that was an email I sent to everyone, I sent to the COVID Task Force. I did send it to the staff there. You know who I don’t mention in the letter? Trump.
ALXnow: If you appreciated him, then you would have mentioned him?
Troye: Right. I had really gone there to serve the vice president in the best way that I possibly could. And when I came forward, I actually was very diligent and made it very clear that this was not about Mike Pence. This was truly about what I thought was a danger that was sitting in the Oval Office. I was there the day of the Lafayette Square clearing. I had walked around. I saw people sitting, standing there. I saw kids standing there. I saw families. I actually walked to the ground before they went through and cleared it out. I know journalists that got hurt that day. I mean, it was awful, and I do remember, and that was actually the night where he was holding the Bible, I thought that was complete hypocrisy, watching him walk around that way. You know who wasn’t there that day? Mike Pence wasn’t there that day. He knew better.
And by the way, COVID’s still happening. I’m still on the task force. We’ve, by that point, had so many incidents. We’ve gone through the bleach thing. We’ve gone through situations where we’d make decisions, we’d walk out of the task force meeting, and they would just completely get flipped upside down.
When he did that whole bleach incident, by the way, we had to call the CDC. We had to put out notices saying, please don’t do that. And people did. People did, and I was like, people are gonna get hurt right now because of what he said. I mean, he’s got the most powerful microphone in the world. And when you have that, I think you have a responsibility to behave in a responsible way where you’re not hurting Americans.
ALXnow: How did you resign, exactly? Did you meet with Kellogg?
Troye: After what happened at Lafayette Square, I had a conversation with the vice president’s general counsel. I said, “Tell me why I shouldn’t quit?” We were very close. I trusted him. We worked very closely together. We navigated a lot of the COVID stuff. I was a very trusted entity in the office, and that was the one thing that I don’t think anyone would dispute: that I was there unwaveringly. I saw Pence probably once a day, at least. I was definitely an intricate part of the team. His response to me that day, which I’ll never forget, and I actually took to heart, is, I think, the reason that a lot of us kept hanging in there when there were definitely moments where it was like, “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” And his response to me was, “Because the American people need you.”
I like reflected on it, and I said, “Okay, can I hang in there? We’re almost there to November. I just gotta get to the election.” My tenure had been extended, which is why Kellogg’s statements were interesting. Then why did he extend me for another year if I was so bad at my job, right? And my year appointment, it’s normally a year, and I was going to be extended for a third year.
ALXnow: You were already extended?
Troye: Yeah. I was supposed to be serving until the following spring. So, regardless of what happened in the election, I was going to stay through April.
ALXnow: What was supposed to happen after that? Would you rotate back to DHS?
Troye: Yes, I was supposed to rotate back to the Department of Homeland Security. When I went to tell them I was leaving the role, I was told to pause.
ALXnow: You were told to wait?
Troye: I was told, “Let us make sure that we put you in a senior slot, because you’ve worked really hard here.” That was my conversation with Kellogg, who was a national security advisor at the time.
I actually stayed another month. I talked to another person that was close in Pence’s circle that was very senior. I called that person and I said, “Things are really bad,” and that person said, “We know. We can see it.” And that person was no longer in the White House, and I said, “I don’t know what to do,” and he said, “I need you to hang in there for Pence.” Yeah. This is literally what is being said to me, and by that point, I knew the vice president well; we had a very good working relationship. He respects intel, he respects national security.
First of all, Mike Pence is nothing like Donald Trump. They’re very different people. And I think, you know, you may not agree with Pence, his politics, but he is a man of faith. He really, really believes it, and he’s a man of honor, and I think we saw that on January 6.
ALXnow: Was Pence having a hard time when you resigned?
Troye: I would say so. Every day was another unknown for us. Every day was about what crisis was going to be manufactured. that we’re gonna have to navigate, and how are we gonna get through this?
ALXnow: So, you talk to Kellogg and tell him you’re resigning. Then what happened?
Troye: He said it wasn’t going to go over well and to talk to the vice president. He said I needed to tell him directly.
ALXnow: Did you go talk to the vice president?
Troye: I did. We had a very heart-to-heart conversation. We sat in his office, and he asked me to stay. I was really torn. I mean, it was the hardest decision in my life. By that point, I was like, am I failing him and the country if I leave? What happens to all the work that I’m doing? Who is going to run the task force, who is going to do the whole job of homeland security and we’re in the middle of pandemic still, and so the last thing he probably needs is for his homeland security advisor to leave.
ALXnow: He asked you to stay?
Troye: He asked me to reconsider. He told me to think about it over the weekend. I’ll never forget that day. I did (reconsider), but at the end, I felt that I just could not serve in a way that goes against my moral compass. It was destroying me. I was just so torn. I felt guilty about leaving. But the other thing that I was thinking about is that I can’t just leave and go back to DHS. I’m so entrenched in this circle that I’m not going to be able to leave it, and the thing is, my problem is not with the vice president. My problem is with the entire Trump machine and what they were doing, and by that point, I had lived all of it, right?
ALXnow: When you ended up submitting your resignation, was it with immediate effect?
Troye: I said I would hand things over and wasn’t going to leave them cold. I think everyone was surprised that I would leave my whole career, and I resigned from DHS, too. They were trying to make me the Deputy Secretary of DHS.
I think that when you look at D.C., and D.C. is a very political town, people are very motivated, and they’re constantly looking for what’s next. You’re moving up the ladder, right? I did call a former colleague, and they were like, “Are you crazy? Take it. Just take it. Check the box and then move on,” like I’ll have the title. But that wasn’t what this was about for me. It was like, I’m resigning in objection to what I think is a very dangerous scenario.
ALXnow: Were you able to make that transition and hand things off, or was it like Kellogg said, and you were escorted by security from the premises?
Troye: They escort everyone when you’re leaving on your last day. They take your badge.
ALXnow: What did you do then?
Troye: I’d just moved to Del Ray, and when I quit, I literally walked for days, probably for a couple of weeks, and I was watching what was happening on the campaign. I was watching these rallies where I knew that people were getting sick, because I was still talking to the staff, and I was aware that Secret Service was getting sick and it was just upsetting to see kind of this dynamic. I was worried for Pence. He didn’t look well sometimes, and all along, I was like, I can’t in good conscience knowing everything that I know, not do everything I can to try and stop this.
ALXnow: Was part of your intention to liberate yourself from the administration?
Troye: Yes. In some ways, it was more like I don’t know that I would have been able to live with myself. It would have eaten away at me. I think when I finally came forward, I just needed to do it, because it mattered so much for me that it was the truth. Look, I knew Miles Taylor. We were friends at DHS. I watched him get destroyed publicly when he came forward. I watched my friend Elizabeth Newman get pummeled. So, when I made the decision, I knew what was coming.
ALXnow: After you went public, all of a sudden, you’re all over the news. What was that like?
Troye: I was in no way prepared for the media onslaught. There’s no way you can prepare for what is about to happen to you, even if you are aware of what’s happened to someone else. I was a career intelligence officer. We don’t talk to the media. I’ve prepped bosses, I’ve written their talking points for media. And then you’re in the hot seat and the cameras are on you and it’s live. You know that everyone at the White House is watching.
ALXnow: Maybe the president’s watching?
Troye: Absolutely. I have heard how angry he was. You have the most powerful man in the world, who you’ve now made your enemy. I did it. We were prepared, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was terrified. I was scared. My whole family was, and we got it from all directions. We actually informed our neighbors and went door-to-door and told them big news was coming out, and if they wouldn’t mind, if they could just keep an eye out for random people showing up at our house.
ALXnow: But you didn’t just do a few appearances on TV. You kept going with it.
Troye: I knew if I was gonna do this, I was going to have to jump with both feet.
ALXnow: How did you land the Democratic National Convention speech?
Troye: Early in 2024, I had been increasingly concerned about what I was seeing and how it was going, and I was getting increasingly anxious. I had been talking to other non-MAGA Republicans, disaffected Republicans, who were conservatives who were really concerned that Donald Trump might come back into office. We had been having calls, talking to each other and being like, what do we do? What do we do to help the Democrats? How do we help this campaign? I think we waited and waited to figure out if the Biden people were going to contact us, and then what happened is that I went and did a panel in Michigan with Kamala Harris.
ALXnow: You got on a panel with the sitting vice president?
Troye: Yes. Literally, that day I was like, How is this my life? I moderated this panel with her. I introduced her at the event. That was my first time meeting Vice President Harris, and I didn’t know how it was going to go. I hadn’t met the Biden team, and I found her to be very impressive, very smart, and very willing to listen. That was very striking to me about her.
What I didn’t know, and I don’t think anybody knew, perhaps at the time, was that the weekend was when Biden dropped out and she became the candidate. Everyone thought I was in on it, by the way. I had no idea. I watched it like everyone else did. All I said to them was telling them I was happy to put in the work, whatever they needed, I would travel, I’d even reach out to conservatives from the Democratic National Convention.
ALXnow: Then you got the call.
Troye: I never in a million years thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic National Convention in front of thousands of people, millions of eyes. Yeah, no pressure. It was nerve-wracking, as you can imagine, and super intimidating. I mean, I was shaking backstage, and by that point, I’d done a lot of media and speaking events. Nothing prepares you for that one. I remember that (former Georgia) Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan was speaking right after me, and they line you up backstage, and you’re backstage and, like, Oprah’s walking by, Kerry Washington’s walking by. My entire mentality of that was like, I’ve got to reach the people at home. I’m trying to reach communities about what is coming with the second Trump presidency.
ALXnow: You’ve now gone into an enemy camp and doubled down against the administration. What was the reaction like for you?
Troye: Oh, my God. Ugly. I lost friends. What’s been interesting to me is as bad as 2020 was with everything happening, I almost feel like this environment, in some ways, is worse, because now that Trump is back in power, people are so scared and they’re terrified. It’s almost like you’re extra toxic because they’re worried about being associated with you because of its impact on them, and they’re scared, and that’s the reality that we’re seeing across the board.
I’ve decided to really support the machine that stands against MAGA, and I literally am just thinking I will spend the rest of my life trying to counter this thing. That’s how strongly I feel about this.
I don’t actually hate Republicans. I don’t, and I actually don’t hate MAGA. I don’t disparage them. I don’t call them stupid, because these are my friends and neighbors and family, right? I think that there is a lot of extremism that I’m seeing that’s very concerning to me, and I think that, as someone who lived this thing firsthand, I’ve seen how dangerous this is and what these individuals are like, and I do believe in a world of like the rule of law. I believe in truth, I believe in facts.
I’m just very concerned of what I’m seeing across the board, and so that’s why I double down. I speak at the DNC. You know, I didn’t know if I was gonna be welcome there. The Democratic machine, they’re very entrenched in their ways. If you didn’t grow up in it, they don’t really welcome you. That’s still, to a certain extent, the case. And I feel it, and I see it, and I think it’s really unfortunate, because I think they’re gonna have to become more welcoming to disaffected conservatives or more moderates if they’re going to counter what this is, because that movement’s not losing traction.
ALXnow: You said early January that, once Trump gets inaugurated, that we’re going to be dealing with “retribution, immigration reform, and deconstructing the federal bureaucracy.”
Troye: How about that? Right out of the gate.
ALXnow: How often are you publishing on your Substack?
Troye: Two or three times a week. I really try to cut through the noise sometimes. And so yes, I’ll talk about certain headlines, but sometimes I do do deep dives on other issues that maybe aren’t not like front and center.
ALXnow: Do you still consider yourself a Republican? Your stances on immigration, health care, and more indicate that you’re leaning to the left.
Troye: I could probably consider myself more of an independent now. I still have tremendous respect for Republicans and conservatism. I do think of John McCain. I lean conservative. I was raised very, very Catholic, but I also am horrified by what I see happening across the country. I’m horrified about what women in Texas are going through with abortion access. I believe that those are not our decisions to make. That’s a family thing, and so maybe that makes me more of just a very independent person.
ALXnow: Voters have a year and a half before the midterm elections, which could determine whether President Trump is a lame duck in his final two years.
Troye: I am very concerned about that. I think that the Democrats have a long way to go before the midterms, and I’m worried. It’s not that I’m trying to be disparaging, but I think that they have to figure out how they’re going to actually come up with a message that is going to resonate with these voters who really are feeling like either they don’t fit or they’ve been completely forgotten. I saw that on the campaign trail everywhere, I mean, and I think they have a problem. The right-wing machine, one thing they do is they row together, and they’re very effective at messaging.
ALXnow: Do you still feel terrified?
Troye: I am really grateful that if I were going to be anywhere, that this is a community that I ended up in during the hardest time in my life. And I mean that wholeheartedly. Was it hard having the JD Vance motorcade drive by my house? Yes, and it brought back a lot of memories, because I’ve ridden in the vice president’s motorcade a lot, but on the other hand, I went out of my way to be kind to the police officers that were serving on the motorcade. In fact, sometimes when the line was really long here at Gustave, I bought them coffee and I said, “I know you’ve got to get back to work.” They’re just doing their job.
