FROM WASHINGTON, TO BAGHDAD TO WALL STREET -
TV host, author, columnist, speaker and commentator Tom Basile has been in the middle of the action on the biggest stories and hottest issues of the two last decades. His work in the worlds of politics, government, media and business have made him a powerful voice in our national conversation.
Tom is the host of ‘America Right Now’ on NewsmaxTV, one of America’s top news channels on cable and digital platforms. As a television news anchor, he has provided credible, balanced coverage of top stories including presidential campaigns and inaugurations, the January 6th riots, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI and a wide range of other breaking news.
He is an opinion columnist for the Washington Times and the former host of ‘Sunday in America’ on SiriusXM Radio. In addition to the Washington Times, his columns have been frequently published by FoxNews.com, Newsmax.com and a range of other publications. He was an opinion columnist for Forbes from 2012-2018. Basile’s insights into the national political scene, public policy and foreign affairs have earned him a reputation for credibility, candor and common sense.
In 2011, he was one of only two American conservatives featured as part of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year spread about citizen engagement around the world.
His critically-acclaimed book Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq (Potomac, 2017), gives readers his personal account of the Iraq mission during the critical first year after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the daily battle to communicate about the war to an American public increasingly opposed to the mission. The book earned a foreword by National Security Advisor and former UN Ambassador John R. Bolton.
He also published Let it Sink In: The Decade of Obama and Trump (Empire Media Group, 2020) which takes readers on a journey through the 2010s and provides new commentary and analysis to help defend American Freedom in the 2020s.
For more than a decade, Basile was an adjunct professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where he taught earned media strategy.
For more than 20 years he has provided strategic and crisis communications counsel to companies, policy organizations, government agencies, non-profits, advocacy campaigns and grassroots groups. Basile’s work has ensured his clients address brand crises effectively and get noticed by customers, opinion leaders, policymakers and the press. His record of results has ensured the brand growth and development of organizations big and small. Basile’s strategies and hands-on approach have garnered international attention in the world’s most influential media outlets. He is a former Managing Director of the renowned NYC-based Middleberg Communications where he led a CSR communications practice.
From 2009-2011 he served as Executive Director of the New York State Republican Party, during which time the GOP erased several cycles of losses at the local and county levels of government, recaptured its majority in the NYS State Senate and won more Congressional seats for the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives than any other state in the nation.
In 2008, Basile represented the office of the US Chief of Protocol to the Vatican Delegation during the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to New York. In 2005, he served as a lead planner for the Department of State of the historic visit of former Presidents Bush and Clinton to the tsunami-ravaged areas of South Asia.
In March 2004, Basile returned from seven months in Baghdad, Iraq where he served at the request of the White House as a Senior Press Advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority. While in Iraq, he was a spokesperson and strategist for the Coalition’s media operations. He was awarded the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Medal from the Department of Defense for his work with the Coalition.
Basile is also a former Director of Communications for the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington where he managed the EPA Administrator’s public liaison operation and developed stakeholder outreach initiatives for a variety of environmental issues.
During the Bush Presidency, he was often called upon by the White House to help plan significant meetings and events for President Bush including the memorial service for the Space Shuttle Columbia Astronauts in Houston, the President’s 2002 meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, activities surrounding the 57th United Nation’s General Assembly and Bush’s visit to the Nazi concentration camps outside Krakow, Poland.
After serving as a consultant to the Republican National Committee during the 2004 Presidential election, he was named Press Secretary to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. In this role he supervised the media and public affairs operation for the 2005 Presidential Inauguration. He is one of a small group of Americans who has helped manage Presidential Inaugurations representing both the President and the Congress.
In 1997, he was named to the National Italian-American Foundation’s 100 Stars List of prominent young Italian-Americans. In 2008 he was invested into the Roman Catholic Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, where he holds the rank of Knight Commander with Star. Basile is also a 3rd Degree member of the Knights of Columbus.
In 2010 Basile was named to The Capitol Newspaper’s 40 Under 40 list of New York political influencers. Basile sits on the Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs at Hofstra University.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Hofstra University which honored him with its Young Alumnus Award in 2007. He received his Juris Doctorate attending Fordham and Georgetown University Schools of Law and is a member of the New York Bar. He and his wife Carrie have three young children and a golden retriever named Liberty. They reside in the great state of Tennessee.