Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max Not every Trump administration vet is persona non grata in Biden World. KEITH KRACH, who served as a top economic official in DONALD TRUMP’s State Department, has been a regular guest in Biden circles lately. A wealthy Silicon Valley CEO with a penchant for off-the-cuff remarks that rattled the national security establishment during the Trump years, Krach appeared alongside Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO in March to press Congress to pass an economic competitiveness bill to confront China. He hosted the National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, KURT CAMPBELL, in April for a talk on China’s economic aggression. And last month, he appeared alongside ALAN ESTEVEZ, the head of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, to announce his new Global Tech Security Commission at the Atlantic Council. Krach’s close relationship with the Biden team is not common among Trump vets. And it underscores how an aggressive posture towards China has intellectually bound the past two administrations. “One of the rarest things in government is continuity of programs, because when a new government comes in, they think, ‘I've got a better idea and I am going to do it differently,’” Campbell, who is one of the White House’s most influential advisers on China, said in his appearance with Krach. “Almost all the work that Keith did at the State Department … [has] been followed on in [the Biden] administration and, in many respects, that's the highest tribute.” Krach himself is also largely complimentary of the Biden administration’s approach to China, including praise for Biden saying the U.S. would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan. “It was really great to hear from President Biden that we have Taiwan's back on this,” he said. To date, Biden has kept in place most of Trump’s China policies, including his tariffs on Chinese imports, though he did waive potential tariffs on solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations this week, many of which have parts that originated from China. He’s also continued to develop programs pushed by Krach to keep critical tech away from Beijing and steer other nations from Huawei, the state-backed Chinese telecom firm, for 5G wireless infrastructure. Krach, the former CEO of software firm DocuSign, said he emails with Raimondo regularly and has taken on an unofficial role in advising Commerce staffers on the last administration’s initiatives toward China. “[Raimondo] reached out to me when she came on board because she wanted to understand the Clean Network of Democracies,” Krach said, referring to his effort to push world governments away from Chinese technology. “That led to me working with – really, updating and advising – many of the people under her, and Estevez is one of them.” The Commerce Department declined to comment on Krach’s advisory role. Krach’s is not your typical government bureaucrat. For starters, he has a self-promotional streak that can make him a bit of a renegade. He was the highest ranking State Department official to visit Taiwan in four decades when he went in 2020. And, to this day, he brags that he was the first to declare Beijing’s abuses of Uyghur muslims a “genocide” — which he did on Fox News without warning most of his colleagues. He was then, and remains now, unrepentant. “It’s not really a policy style,” he said. “It's just kind of just kind of calling it as it is.” But that call-it-as-it-is approach also inspired eye-rolls and snickering among career staffers. Three former national security officials noted, for instance, that Krach regularly boasts of his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize — a distinction emblazoned across his personal website. But a nomination can be made by any national lawmaker, Cabinet official, or even a university professor. And in this case it was Krach’s former State Department colleague MILES YU, who put him up for the honor. The self-promotion is evident elsewhere. Krach named his new think tank at Purdue University after himself, despite it also employing other former Trump China hawks like former USAID Deputy Administrator BONNIE GLICK. He hands out challenge coins — a tradition in the armed services — to people he meets, despite not being a military official. And he’s wined and dined national security journalists (not your author…yet) at downtown Washington restaurants as he pumps his new think tank. Former colleagues said they appreciated his enthusiasm and commitment to taking on China, but added they wish it was matched with a deeper policy acumen. “I like him,” said one former national security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing business with the administration. “But sometimes it’s a bit like that John Belushi scene from ‘Animal House’: ‘Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?’” Krach’s backers counter that he’s using the skill set he possesses — a business insight and a knack for branding — for altruistic motives. “He is a very effective marketer and brander,” said ROB NOEL, Krach’s former speechwriter at State. “So what may come off to others as self promotional, that was really to him just part and parcel to the overall branding effort.” That’s how Krach himself frames his mission. “I'm not trying to promote Keith Krach,” he said. “What I'm trying to do is make sure the world has hope — that, yes, democracies can defeat authoritarian [governments] and freedom is worth fighting for. That's what I'm trying to do.” TEXT US — Are you ALEXANDRA LAMANNA, new White House assistant press secretary? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous if you’d like. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com or you can text/Signal/Wickr Alex at 8183240098.
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