Neocons Wage a Rearguard Action Against Trump’s Middle East Peace Drive
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) does not seem to trust President Donald Trump’s foreign policy judgment. In an interview with the Jewish Insider published on Thursday, he called Trump’s recent staff choices “alarming” and warned that the administration should steer clear of officials who “make their Obama and Biden predecessors look tough by comparison.”
The next day, Fox News ran an article with the headline “Trump’s latest hires and fires rankle Iran hawks as new president suggests nuclear deal.” The hawks in question were Mark Levin, a former NeverTrumper who hosts a conservative radio show; Kasra Aarabi, director of research at United Against Nuclear Iran, a hawkish nonprofit chaired by Jeb Bush; and an anonymous “Iran expert” who called Trump’s hires “very concerning.”
It’s not just Trump’s hires who have the hawks concerned. In a Wednesday interview, Fox News host Sean Hannity tried to goad Trump into saying that he would bomb Iranian nuclear sites and oil refineries. Instead, Trump responded: “I want them to have a great country. They have great potential. The people are amazing. The only thing I’ve said about Iran is that they can’t have a nuclear weapon….There are ways that you can make it absolutely certain if you make a deal.”
Although Trump has postured as both a hawk and a dove at times, his stance towards the Middle East in his first term was aggressively hawkish, almost leading to war with Iran. During the 2024 campaign, Trump signalled more of the same, promising to make Iran broke and help Israel “finish the job” in Gaza. But so far this year, he has secured an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and signaled loudly that he wants to resolve America’s disputes with Iran.
Along with the deal to free Israeli hostages, Trump adviser Elon Musk also reportedly negotiated for Iran to release an Italian journalist a week before Trump’s inauguration.
In the process, Trump has purged many Middle East hawks who served in his first term. A few days before his auguration, Trump mocked “disloyal warmongers” in a social media post. He even revoked the government-issued security detail from former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Special Envoy Brian Hook, who was in charge of Iran.
“Last year, Trump promised he would blow Iran ‘to smithereens’ if it ever harmed an American presidential candidate. But pulling security away from Americans who need it, in a move seemingly motivated by personal animosity, he leaves America weaker and Tehran emboldened,” the editorial board of the hawkish Free Press complained on Friday. “The president calls his whole agenda, ‘America First.’ This move is just the opposite.”
Two staffers at the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which had been highly influential during Trump’s first term, made a desperate plea in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for Trump to arm Israel for an attack on Iran and prepare U.S. forces for any Iranian retaliation.
“Many in Mr. Trump’s America-first movement would probably rather see Iran go nuclear than have the U.S. pre-emptively destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities,” they wrote, pointing the finger at Vice President J.D. Vance and conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson.
Other Republican hawks have shied away from such a frontal attack on Trump. Instead, they’ve been claiming that the president is being misled by bad advisers. The pressure campaign has focused on Mike Dimino, the new assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East; Elbridge Colby, awaiting confirmation as undersecretary of defense for policy; and Steven Witkoff, the special envoy who brokered the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and is reportedly responsible for
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