#neocons

Yours truly trying to talk some sense into this neoliberal AIPAC money taking warmongering Ohio congressman this morning on C-Span. I speak at the 24 minute mark. Didn't make a dent I am afraid. At least Greta asked a follow-up question when as usual the issue was skirted. Who are these people?

Avoid paywall: https://archive.ph/2026.05.10-122126/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/iran-war-trump-losing/687094/

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. https://x.com/rnaudbertrand/status/2054040365561426205?s=61&t=W4qhULZPKylo1GX1_Lt6fA

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George W. Bush had the hawkish Charles Krauthammer to explain his hawkish presidency to the public and advise him in private. Barack Obama liked talking to The New Yorker's David Remnick. And Donald Trump has increasingly, improbably turned to a former Bush speechwriter best known for defending the least popular elements of Bush's foreign policy, the Iraq War and CIA torture: The Washington Post's Marc Thiessen.

And Thiessen may deserve credit for one of the surprises of Trump's second term: his continued, if measured, support for Ukraine in the face of hostility inside his party and his administration.

"He is doing more to help Ukraine than Biden ever did," Thiessen declared in a piece ranking the best decisions of the first year of the second Trump presidency.

Post opinion editor Adam O'Neal has told journalists that Thiessen's calls with Trump regarding Ukraine were influential in persuading Trump to continue to take the country's side in the conflict in the face of some Republicans pushing for a quick settlement with Russia, people familiar with the Post's internal conversations said. Thiessen similarly told colleagues at the Post that he believed his columns were shaping Trump's thinking on the war in Ukraine....

The rise of Thiessen, 59, reflects a broader shift in Trump's orbit away from media figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, who celebrated his efforts to withdraw American forces from conflicts around the world, and toward advisers linked to the wars that defined the Bush years....

And Thiessen's rise began well before this year's attack on Iran (which Thiessen wholeheartedly backed). Last year, Trump invited him to have dinner with their respective wives at the White House. Thiessen has told people at the Post that after one phone call with Trump, the president complimented the attractiveness of Thiessen's wife....

Trump's rolodex is shifting as he adopts a more interventionist foreign policy approach. The Iran war, in particular, has brought a resurgence of the Fox News hawks like Thiessen, Gen. Jack Keane, and Levin, who have all advocated increasingly for an aggressive stance on Iran and a resumed military campaign.

Levin and Thiessen have staked out a position against the America First wing that has been skeptical of Trump's Iran policy, including Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and others....

Trump's embrace of slightly less-well-known conservative media figures like Thiessen has is a warning sign for his coalition. Some of the most ascendant online stars, who helped boost him among younger right-leaning and independent voters in 2024, have abandoned him. Trump in turn has bashed them, turning to the only people who still support him: a small group of hawks who have largely been ideologically sidelined for years.

But it's also revealing of another Trump trait: the disproportionate value he places on the legacy outlets that constitute much of his media diet.

Will technocrats from the TIC like JD Vance and Vivek R replace them?

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Any guesses on who funded and backed Mitch the most? (MIC)

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