Revolving Door

Why Can’t Trump Quit the Neocons?

The term “revolving door” has long been used to describe the practice of Washington lobbyists and defense contractors circling in and out of government, enriching themselves as they impoverish and debase the country they are ostensibly here to serve.

Today I’m using the term to refer to something else—just as bad, but slightly different.

When the inevitable firing of Trump’s first national security adviser Mike Waltz came to pass, Waltz was shown not the door, but was ushered instead to a revolving door which delivered him to a penthouse apartment at 50 United Nations Plaza—home of the US Ambassador to the UN. In other words, the discredited neocon was given the softest of landings—a new job, a new city, a new chance.

That Walz is getting such a second chance—despite reports that he got on the wrong side of Trump’s powerful Chief of Staff, Susan Wiles, says much for the staying power of the neoconservative movement which, make no mistake, is as influential as ever now that it has true believers in influential positions in both political parties.

That Trump did the right thing by firing Waltz was amply confirmed by the reaction it generated from the Washington establishment. Longtime CIA stenographer David Ignatius complained that…

Several foreign officials I spoke with Thursday were flummoxed that Waltz, seen as a figure of stability, would be departing with his skilled deputy, Alex Wong, at such a sensitive moment.”

Democratic Congressman Jim Himes claimed (without evidence) that the loss of Waltz “weakens” Trump’s national security team. Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon (who seems to be on a mission to take on the role Liz Cheney played as Trump’s chief Republican antagonist) sung Waltz’s praises; Texas Senator Ted Cruz whined that Waltz’s firing was “unfortunate news.”

Politico rightly noted that…

Waltz has allies in Congress and the transfer to Turtle Bay is a reflection of Waltz’s continued credibility with Republicans. On Capitol Hill, many GOP staffers privately expressed alarm at the reports that Waltz would be leaving, viewing him as a key player in the Trump administration’s efforts to counter adversaries like China, Russia and Iran.”

Another (or the actual) reason for the long faces among Waltz’s Democratic and Republican friends has of course to do with Israel.

The Washington Post reports that…

Waltz upset Trump by appearing to “have engaged in intense coordination with [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu about military options against Iran ahead of an Oval Office meeting between the Israeli leader and Trump, the two people said. Waltz ‘wanted to take U.S. policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the U.S. hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution,’ according to one of the people. ‘It got back to Trump and the president wasn’t happy with it,’ that person said.”

As is by now well-known, any effort to help set off an unnecessary war on Israel’s behalf is the surest way to win the hearts and minds of reporters like Ignatius and blowhards like Cruz.

Waltz’s colleague, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is now set to inherit the title and responsibilities of US national security adviser—he will be the first to hold both jobs since Henry A. Kissinger, which is where the parallels between the two end.

Rubio’s stock is said to be on the rise. What that actually amounts to when someone as mercurial as Trump is at the head of the table is anyone’s guess. Yet Rubio’s position on the war in Ukraine should worry the America First camp—Rubio is nothing if not dedicated to Zelensky and Rubio’s longstanding ties to neocon hedge fund manager Paul Singer means that he is now, with his dual role, the most powerful neocon since Vice President Dick Cheney. Still worse, Rubio’s takeover of the NSC provides cover for the neocons Waltz brought in with him.

As I have noted ad nauseam over the past dozen years, neoconservatives are ruthlessly effective in getting what they want—and right now they are waging a public and behind-the-scenes battle for the president's ear.

Knives out for America First

Steve Witkoff, who has served as the president’s envoy to Iran and Russia, has emerged as the primary target of pro-war Democrats and the GOP neocons (from the vantage point of 2025, a distinction without a difference, to be sure).

The New York Post, which never deviates from the pro-war, pro-Israeli line, headlined a story claiming, “Steve Witkoff shouldn’t be leading Iran, Russia negotiations, allies and insiders say.”

The AM radio troglodyte Mark Levin declared that Witkoff was in league with “fifth column isolationists” for trying to find a peaceful offramp to war with Iran. Neocon polemicist Anne Applebaum took to social media to condemn what she sees as Witkoff’s…

Jaw dropping ignorance. Witkoff knows nothing. Has no knowledge of the violence that Russians have used to suppress Ukrainians in Occupied Ukraine.”

She might also have noted, but of course did not, the violence used by Kiev to suppress the political activity and speech of those under its sovereignty during the Spring of 2014 when US-backed Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko launched a military campaign against his own citizens; nor I suppose would she mentioned the massacre in Odessa that took place that May when Ukrainian citizens protesting the Maidan coup were barricaded inside a trade union hall and burned alive by their fellow (pro-Western, pro-Maidan) citizens.

Applebaum was joined by the professional clown Andy Borowitz (formerly of the New Yorker) who condemned Witkoff as “the useful idiot’s useful idiot.” From where Borowitz derives his knowledge of post-Soviet affairs remains unknown.

The shadowy British academic Mark Galeotti likewise condemned Witkoff, complaining that…

He’s not an analyst or a moderator. He doesn’t care about the facts. He's a political hitman out to impose a particular deal, and he'll say what he needs to set up and justify it.”

Anyone familiar with Galeotti’s work, which I unfortunately am, will find the accusation of “not caring about facts” a bit rich coming from him (anyone interested in what I’m referring to should feel free to Google the “Gerasimov Doctrine.”)

It should be kept in mind that Witkoff is setting off alarm bells not because he has succeeded—he has not and likely will not succeed in finalizing a deal to end the war—but because he is committing the biggest sin of all: Engaging with Moscow and attempting (as diplomats supposed to) to empathize with their position in search of a workable deal for all sides. That’s how deals get done—but Applebaum et al. do not want a deal. They want the war and killing to continue—and ultimately what they want is regime change in Moscow. And fools like Borowitz are simply piling on out of political expediency.

The same knives that are out for Witkoff are also out for the relatively few America First stalwarts inside the administration. A recent hit piece from the neocon tabloid The Tablet has as its target a young White House staffer by the name of Sergio Gor. Gor, who seems to have a preternatural instinct for the way Washington operates, is the director of the White House personnel office—my understanding is that all political appointees (Schedule C) must go through Gor. Yet Gor is now under fire because he came up through the ranks as a staffer for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, and Paul is the only—let me repeat—only sitting US Senator that has evinced even a modicum of sense regarding the war in Ukraine. So Gor is now, like Witkoff, being targeted by a smear campaign orchestrated by the very same people who were singing Waltz’s praises as he trundled into that revolving door to New York.

James W. Carden is editor of TRR.

The Realist Review is a new home for realism and restraint online, providing in-depth analysis and commentary from a distinguished cohort of foreign policy experts, including Col. Douglas Macgregor (CEO of Our Country, Our Choice); Dr. Robert Skidelsky (UK House of Lords); Dr. Michael Vlahos (Johns Hopkins SAIS); Dr. Christopher Mott (Institute for Peace and Diplomacy); Professor Peter Kuznick (American University); among many others.