Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former White House aide, is the author of What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House. He is a frequent television and radio analyst and has appeared on Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, and The NewsHour, among other outlets. His latest book is Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump.
On August 3, 2007, Troy was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As deputy secretary, Troy was the chief operating officer of the largest civilian department in the federal government, with a budget of $716 billion and over 67,000 employees. In that position, he oversaw all operations, including Medicare, Medicaid, public health, medical research, food and drug safety, welfare, child and family services, disease prevention, and mental health services. He served as the regulatory policy officer for HHS, overseeing the development and approval of all HHS regulations and significant guidance. In addition, he led a number of initiatives at HHS, including implementing the President's Management Agenda, combating bioterrorism, and public health emergency preparedness. He also sponsored a series of key conferences on improving HHS’s role with respect to innovation in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and medical device industries. Troy has led U.S. government delegations to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Africa.
Troy has extensive White House experience, having served in several high-level positions over a five-year period, culminating in his service as deputy assistant and then acting assistant to the president for domestic policy. In the latter position, he ran the Domestic Policy Council and was the White House’s lead adviser on health care, labor, education, transportation, immigration, crime, veterans, and welfare. At the White House, Troy also specialized in crisis management, creating intragovernmental consensus, and all aspects of policy development, including strategy, outreach and coalition building. He also served for a time as the White House Jewish liaison. Troy spearheaded the White House’s American Competitiveness Initiative, featured in the 2007 State of the Union Address. He left the White House for a period to serve as deputy policy director for the 2004 Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, where he was responsible for debate preparation.
Troy has held high-level positions on Capitol Hill as well. From 1998 to 2000, he served as the policy director for Senator John Ashcroft. From 1996 to 1998, he was a senior domestic policy adviser and later domestic policy director for the House Policy Committee, chaired by Christopher Cox.
From 2009 to 2013, Troy was a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, where he remains an adjunct fellow. He has also been a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.
In addition to his senior level government work and health care expertise, Troy is a presidential historian, making him one of only a handful of historians who has both studied the White House and worked there at the highest levels. He is also the author of Intellectuals and the American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians? and has written over 150 articles, for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Forbes, The New Republic, Commentary, Reason, Investor’s Business Daily, National Review, Washingtonian, The Weekly Standard, and other publications.
Troy's many other affiliations include being a contributing editor for Washingtonian magazine; a member of the publication committee of National Affairs; a member of the Board of Fellows of the Jewish Policy Center; adjunct professor at the School of Policy and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University; a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute; and a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel examining the United States’ readiness to address bioterrorism and naturally occurring outbreaks. He served as the president of the American Health Policy Institute. In 2012, he was a special policy adviser to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign and served as the director of domestic policy for the nascent Romney transition.
Troy has a B.S. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and an M.A and a Ph.D. in American civilization from the University of Texas at Austin.
He lives in Maryland with his wife, Kami, and four children.
