Curt Cashour

The gatekeeper: top advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary, coordinating policy, strategy, operations and communications across the department.

Iraq War Army veteran (Bronze Star) and career Republican communications operative — twice communications director for House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Republicans, VA press secretary in the first Trump administration, then VA’s Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs before moving up in February 2026.

He is the second chief of staff of this administration: Chris Syrek held the job from January 2025 to February 13, 2026, before leaving for the private sector.

Accountable for: whether a letter to the Secretary becomes action or becomes silence is, operationally, a chief-of-staff question. The 30-day clock on Letter No. 1 runs through his office.

On video: a communications professional; no on-camera series of his own — he ran the department’s messaging before he ran its front office.

Official bio: department.va.gov. Verified October 16, 2026.