Iran hawks will hold less sway in Trump’s new government

Iran hawks will hold less sway in Trump’s new government

Washington Post -Nov17th2024

November 17, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EST

Shortly after Iran’s launch of some 180 missiles into Israel in October, Sen. Marco Rubio had strong opinions, like other Republican lawmakers, about what should happen in response.

“Only threatening the survival of the regime through maximum pressure and direct and disproportionate measures has a chance to influence and alter their criminal activities,” Rubio (R-Florida), now President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state nominee, declared on social media.

Other Trump allies on Capitol Hill similarly called on the Biden administration to green-light a sweeping Israeli military retaliation. Strike Iran’s nuclear arsenal and wipe out its oil refineries, some suggested. Others urged U.S. participation in such strikes.

“Back Israel to the hilt to destroy our common enemies,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), whose name also circulated as a potential Trump Cabinet pick, wrote on X at the time. Brian Hook, Trump’s special envoy for Iran during his first term, told Fox News Business that he expected Israel to respond with a “major” attack, potentially including assassinations, that would change “the balance of power in the region” and said the Jewish state “can and they should” do so.

Trump’s election victory has meant that the GOP’s traditionalist foreign policy hawks — for whom Iran has long been a top focus — are ascendant once again, as the party prepares to take control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

To Tehran, the message from many of Trump’s surrogates has taken the form of a broad warning. Gone, they say, is the Democrats’ “weak” policy of appeasement. Prepare to be squeezed into submission.

Among them is Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term and has called for strong action against Iran. “There’s going to be a massive departure from the Biden administration’s foreign policy at every level,” he said in an interview, signaling his belief that there will be “bold and immediate action,” including sanctions enforcement, “that will have a very rapid effect.”

But while those most eager for a U.S. assault on Iran, or even regime change, held sway in the last Trump administration, several GOP lawmakers and officials are cautioning that those voices will enjoy far less clout this time around.