Richard Higgins (September 18, 1974 – February 23, 2022) was an American counter-terrorism analyst who served as the Director for Strategic Planning of the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

in the

Trump administration Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to: * First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021 * Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025 See also * ...

in 2017. He was removed by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster after warning in a memo of a

deep state Deep state is a term used for (real or imagined) potential, unauthorized and often secret networks of power operating independently of a State (polity), state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agendas and goals. Although the term ori ...

plot to remove the president.

Career

Higgins earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in mechanical engineering from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

. After college, he served as a specialist in an

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated fu ...

unit in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. After serving in the army, he went on to work for the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

. As a civilian working for the Department of Defense, he attended the

National Defense University National Defence (or Defense) University (or College) may refer to: :''Alphabetical by country'' University * Marshal Fahim National Defense University, Afghanistan * National Defense University (Azerbaijan) * People's Liberation Army National Defe ...

(NDU), studying security strategy and counter-terrorism and received a master's degree. He eventually became the National Defense University's first civilian chair. Higgins later served as the Vice President of Unconstrained Analytics.

Trump administration

Some months after being appointed to serve in the National Security Council by National Security Advisor

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born 24 December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports tha ...

in early 2017, Higgins wrote a seven-page memo titled "POTUS and Political Warfare" which claimed that a cabal of deep state actors were conspiring against Trump, which included the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, global corporatists and bankers, the Democratic Party leadership, the Republican Party leadership, and

Islamists Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...

. Trump was reportedly "furious" after learning of Higgins' forced departure by Flynn's replacement, H.R. McMaster. In 2018, Higgins and retired CIA officer Brad Johnson, backed by about a dozen intelligence and special operations community members, published a conspiracy theory that the

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

(IS) and antifa were involved in the

2017 Las Vegas shooting On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He fired m ...

. Higgins co-authored the book ''Re-Remembering the Mis-Remembered Left: The Left's Strategy and Tactics To Transform America'' with Stephen Coughlin in 2019. In 2020, the White House reportedly attempted to push the Department of Defense to hire Higgins under its nominee for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon,

Anthony Tata Anthony Jean Tata (born September 7, 1959) () is an American retired military officer, author and government official. Tata is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army, serving until 2009, and later served as a school district ad ...

. Higgins died on February 23, 2022. He left behind his wife and four children.

Bibliography

References

External links

POTUS & Political Warfare
2017 memo
Rich Higgins
an
Remembering Rich Higgins
at Unconstrained Analytics {{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Richard 1974 births 2022 deaths American conspiracy theorists National Defense University alumni National Defense University faculty First Trump administration personnel Tufts University alumni United States Army soldiers United States Department of Defense officials United States National Security Council staffers