WASHINGTON — President Trump’s controversial top official in charge of vetting political appointees was born in Uzbekistan — not Malta as he has claimed he’s from, a Maltese newspaper revealed Tuesday.
Sergio Gor, 38, who for years boasted of being from the Mediterranean island nation, has dragged his feet submitting paperwork for US top-security clearance.
Malta’s government last month confirmed to The Post it had no record of his birth — with Gor then refusing to identify his country of birth other than to say it was not Russia.
Questions emerged about where Gor was born because administration sources said he had not submitted his Standard Form 86, a more than 100-page questionnaire used to gain a permanent security clearance, after he was appointed to the post. Nearly all other top administration officials had done so months ago.
The form requires applicants to list their birthplace, former places of residence and foreign contacts.
The White House said its vetter-in-chief, whose role is to recruit and screen 4,000 aides to fulfill Trump’s agenda across the executive branch, had “completed” the form, but it did not assert that he had “submitted” it. Even if he did, the status of his submission remains unclear.
Sources said Gor’s interim security clearance is expected to expire this month, though it’s possible Trump can extend it.
Sources close to and inside the Trump administration aren’t sure why Gor, who attended high school in the Los Angeles area and graduated from George Washington University in DC, would be so secretive about his childhood.
They said they suspect it’s because he’s given friends and colleagues an earful about his family’s Maltese roots and that the recently surfaced information would make him seem dishonest.
After The Post’s initial report on Gor’s stonewalling of the form, two sources said he was born in Uzbekistan, which was confirmed by the Times of Malta.
Gor was born in 1986 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the paper said.
Gor’s mother Liya Gorokhovsky, who has since died, opened a company in Malta 1994 and listed her nationality as Israeli, according to the report.
As for Gor, he listed his birthplace as Uzbekistan on forms to buy a house his late mother owned in Cospicua for about $300,000 in 2021.
The newspaper documented Gor being resident in Malta for at least three years.
A rep for the island’s De La Salle College, a K-12 private boys school, confirmed Gor was a student there from 1996 to 1999.
Gor served as an aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky). during Trump’s first term and swiftly rose in prominence and wealth in the four years between the Republican leader’s terms — launching a publishing company in 2021 that turned a collection of Trump photos into a coffee-table book. Months later, he bought a seven-bedroom mansion near Palm Beach, Fla.
Gor garnered national attention in June as he took the blame for Trump’s explosive falling-out with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s former cost-cutting chief.
The top government vetter allegedly triggered the explosive feud by convincing the president to yank Musk’s pick to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman, over donations to Democrats. Gor allegedly had nursed a personal grudge and spoken of payback against Musk for “humiliating” him at a cabinet meeting over his pace of hiring.
Musk’s break with Trump has led him to claim he’s starting a third political party, potentially devastating Republicans in the midterm elections.
Sergio referred a Post request for comment to the White House press office.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement in response, “Sergio Gor’s life, as a legal immigrant to the United States who has built a very successful career, is the embodiment of the American Dream.
“Sergio has led the effort in staffing President Trump’s Administration with the best and brightest imaginable talent. Sergio is a trusted and loyal advisor on the President’s team.”
White House Counsel David Warrington said: “Mr. Gor is fully compliant with all applicable ethical and legal obligations. His SF-86 form has been completed, and his security clearance is active, any insinuation otherwise would be completely false.”
Warrington’s statement did not assert the form had been submitted.
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