Trump Tech Leaders to 18F: 'We Have Your Back'

President Donald Trump’s White House might continue a much-hyped technology team founded under Barack Obama.

At a town hall meeting Thursday, one of Trump’s senior tech officials expressed support for the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Service, which houses digital consultancy 18F. That group recruits tech professionals, mostly from the private sector, to serve short-term stints in government.

Reed Cordish, a Baltimore real-estate developer and Trump’s assistant to the president for intragovernmental and technology initiatives, reassured 18F and TTS that "[w]e have your back,” White House Chief Digital Officer Gerrit Lansing tweeted Thursday.

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That tweet comes days after Lansing suggested the U.S. Digital Service, a White House IT troubleshooting team formed after the botched HealthCare.gov rollout, would also be sticking around. “FYI: @USDS is here to stay in the new administration. Period.,” Lansing tweeted Monday.

Lansing and Cordish met during the presidential transition with senior tech officials from those groups, including Rob Cook, head of TTS. The transition team was “completely supportive from the start” of federal technology projects, Cook wrote in a Jan. 9 18F staff email Nextgov obtained.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, wrote in an email to former White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park that “continued dedication to modernizing government tech is a mission critical task and we look forward to working with the many talented, dedicated tech professionals,” including at USDS and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.