Former Trump DHS chief Chad Wolf starts consulting firm

Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, is launching a consulting firm to provide companies, NGOs and government agencies with advice on homeland and national security matters.

The new firm is called Wolf Global Advisors, and Wolf is launching it with three former other senior Trump DHS officials: former acting chief of staff Scott Erickson, former deputy chief of staff Tyler Houlton and legislative affairs director Beth Spivey.

“During my time at DHS, I came to know and came to realize that a number of organizations, whether they’re companies or non-profits really struggle with assessing risk and security issues facing their respective organizations,” Wolf said in an interview. “Others want to better understand the department, whether they’re regulated by the department, or perhaps they have technology or services to help the department better fulfill their mission.”

Wolf said he already has a few clients signed up, but declined to name them unless one of the principals at the firm has to register as a lobbyist for them. He said he could potentially work with foreign governments as well, but won’t do any work that would require him or his firm to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act at this time.

He said he is also open to working as a federal government contractor, although that’s not something he had in mind when setting up the firm, and it’s unlikely the Biden administration would hire his firm.

Wolf worked as a lobbyist before joining the Trump administration, and was closely involved in some of its most controversial initiatives, including its separation of migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border and its handling of the Black Lives Matter protests. President Donald Trump nominated him to be permanent secretary of DHS toward the end of his term.

“My passion continues to be to help the department accomplish their mission, and at the same time, helping the private sector and companies or nonprofits engage with them,” Wolf said. “So I really felt like that was where my interests lied right now so I wanted to explore that.”

Wolf, who drew fire for DHS’ role in the Portland courthouse protests last summer, is also a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, where he writes about immigration, border security, China and cybersecurity.

Wolf resigned as acting secretary a few days after the Jan. 6 insurrection and mentioned it in his resignation letter, but said he mostly left because of the legal challenges to his authority as acting secretary and also a desire to ensure a clean transition.

He declined to directly comment on how he thinks Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is doing but in multiple media interviews over the last few weeks, Wolf has been critical of the management of the border crisis.