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President Donald Trump is bulldozing over generations of Republican national security orthodoxy.
He canned the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, who enjoyed broad GOP support, as well as several other top military officials. He’s pulling closer to Russia on the world stage after Republican hawks last year labored to deliver Ukraine more money to fight Vladimir Putin. And he’s toppled the US Agency of International Development, drawing back from decades-old bipartisan soft power strategies. His national security appointees largely share his noninterventionist worldview, leaving little internal counterweight to his moves.
Perhaps what’s most remarkable, though, is the lack of public tension between the party’s hawks and its noninterventionist wing — the sort of ugly internal scuffles that marked Trump’s first term. That’s in part because Trump’s remodeled GOP elected and elevated dozens of new, like-minded lawmakers.
“It’s not isolationism. It’s realism,” Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said of Trump’s approach to national security. “The party has changed. President Trump has changed the party in his own image.”
The old-line hawks who remain in office aren’t fully unwilling to push back against Trump’s more pro-Russia instincts, and they’re already urging him not to cut a deal with Putin that shortchanges Ukraine. They’re also breaking with Trump over his false assertion that Ukraine started the war and are aiming to ensure his appointees cater to their views, too.
But the shift Trump imposed upon his party is already in place; the White House acknowledged its policy decisions over the past month essentially finalizes the break from the establishment consensus forged during the George W. Bush administration. A White House official described the president’s positions using the same “realism” term used by Banks, arguing that Trump’s approach is not to adhere to any outdated “doctrine.”
“In dealing with the realities of what is actually going on, each conflict and each issue is completely different from each other,” the official said.
Trump’s focus on US interests first is meant to cause ripple effects throughout the world, a national security adviser added.
“It all falls in line with Trump’s perspective, which is: There’s no greater deterrent to chaos in the world than a strong America at home,” the NSC official told Semafor.
A handful of Republicans are still questioning the firing of Brown and other top military officials. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said it was Trump’s prerogative but “I do not think, based on the merits, that the decision to fire them was warranted.”
When it comes to ending the war in Ukraine, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said “any scenario where Putin comes out feeling like he even tied — let alone won — I can’t support.” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said the Trump administration “royally screwed up” by siding with Russia against a United Nations resolution marking its role in starting the war.
But for the most part, after Congress supplied Ukraine with weapons for years, it’s Trump’s show now.
“I don’t think a bill to send more money to Ukraine right now would pass,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Kennedy added that Congress has little choice at this point but to be deferential. It’s a stark change from eight years ago, when Trump at times drew the ire of GOP hawks like the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is no longer majority leader.
Even the Senate Armed Services Committee is now stocked with Trump allies on national security.
“It’s a pivot to realism,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who went to Munich this month to tell European allies to step up. “It’s where I think the center of gravity is moving toward.”
Know More
With the Cabinet largely confirmed, one of the most intriguing Trump nominees is Elbridge Colby, tapped as the Pentagon’s No. 3. He’s raised eyebrows in the party by arguing for less focus on the Middle East and more on China, a break from the long-term Republican focus on Iran.
Yet Colby’s trips to Capitol Hill may be helping him make headway. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she had a “really great meeting with him” and that he’s having positive visits with GOP senators. Approached in the Capitol complex Tuesday, Colby declined comment.
Still, Colby may have to adjust some of his views to win confirmation, such as his skepticism of preserving the option to use force to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Several high-profile Trump picks have made similar conversions on defense policy, like former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s embrace of surveillance programs that she previously criticized.
“These are not people who are anything but ‘peace through strength,’” the NSC official said.
That Colby may win over skeptical lawmakers by adjusting some of his personal beliefs, as Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did earlier this year, shows that unconventional Trump nominees now have a clear path to win confirmation.
It’s for a simple reason, if you ask the White House.
“Everyone has learned at this point, if you go up against Trump, you’ll lose,” the White House official said.
The Senate also will have to confirm Lt. Gen. Dan Caine as a replacement for Brown, who was confirmed overwhelmingly by the Senate in 2023. Though Democrats said Caine’s ouster was leading to a more politicized military, Republicans mostly shrugged.
“I like [Brown] a lot, but Caine’s a better fit,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “[Trump] just trusts Caine.”
The View From Democrats
Democrats are entering strange territory where many in their party are more conventionally hawkish than most Republicans. They do not seem to like it.
“We need people in both parties standing up to at least proclaim what’s obvious — in this case, that Russia invaded Ukraine,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., referring to Trump’s false claim that Ukraine started the war.
Burgess and Shelby’s View
Trump has made significant changes with only gentle pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill. From bashing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to siding against the UN resolution on Ukraine to remaking the top military rungs, Trump appears to be gleefully thumbing his nose at old-school Republicans.
He’s at the peak of his power — on foreign policy as well as domestic issues — and he knows it.
And in case you thought there might be big changes in the next GOP primary, remember that his potential successor, Vice President JD Vance, is cut from the same cloth.
Notable
- Trump advisrs have privately “fumed” that the media is focusing so much on what they describe as Trump’s “misstatement” about who started the war between Russia and Ukraine, Axios reported.