Trump's Middle East trip formalizes his rebuke of the Republican Party's ‘neocons'
But it was his remarks on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that resonated across the US foreign policy sphere as the Republican president blasted 'interventionalists' on both sides of the American political spectrum — a message that was at once a rebuke of three living former presidents and much of the traditional Washington establishment.
In a speech to a US-Saudi investment forum, the president delivered the clearest vision yet of what his Middle East policy will look like in a second term — the departure from a status quo that governed how the US does business and forges partnerships in the region. His remarks rejected any notion of giving credit to past US or European leaders who'd left their successive stamps on the region in a condemnation that was reminiscent of the screeds he delivered against the Iraq War during his first run for the presidency in 2015-2016.
'This great transformation [of the Middle East] has not come from Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs,' Trump declared. 'The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called 'nation-builders,' 'neocons,' or 'liberal non-profits,' like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad, so many other cities.'
He went further: 'In the end, the so-called 'nation-builders' wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.'
With those jabs, the US president capped off a dynamic that has emerged through his first 100 days in office, a time span defined so far by the rapid-fire DOGE-ification of the federal government and turmoil that has eaten away at the unity of Donald Trump's White House team from within. At the beginning of May, the president announced a personnel shift long speculated to be in the making: he ousted Mike Waltz, his national security adviser, moving the former congressman to a new posting as United Nations ambassador.
Seen as the most neoconservative foreign policy hawk in the White House, Waltz's ouster as national security adviser and departure from conversations that administration principles have about military action was thought at the time to be part of a broader shakeup marginalizing those voices within the second Trump White House. That now seems to be verifiably the case, as Waltz's deputies were caught up in a hunt for disloyal staffers undertaken by activist Laura Loomer and they appear to be on the back foot in every regard.
The president's condemnation of 'neocons' in his party comes as his administration conducts the first direct talks with Iran held by American officials dating back to his first term, when (at the urging of those same 'neocons') Trump tore up the JCPOA deal hashed out by his predecessor, Barack Obama, intending to constrain Iran's nuclear program. Trump is now pursuing a deal along those lines, with talks having proceeded through multiple rounds. The US president has praised Iran as 'acting very intelligent' and being 'reasonable' during negotiations, causing headaches for Washington hawks supportive of his first-term 'maximum pressure' policy.
His team also ended US military strikes targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, where the militant group controls the capital and much of the surrounding territory. Houthi attacks on U.S. ships broke out again earlier this year with the breakdown of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but the US president now says that his administration received assurances that strikes on shipping lanes would end if American bombing ceased.
Trump has even bucked Israel as he has for months resisted calls from Jerusalem to support Israeli military action against Iranian nuclear sites and declined to retaliate against the Houthis for an attack on Ben Gurion airport. On Tuesday, he announced the end of sanctions on Syria, a development Israel's government opposed.
All of this is to say, Trump's break from the Washington foreign policy consensus that has engulfed every living president is producing a real environment for change.
In Ukraine, a ceasefire is potentially on the horizon as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a team of Russian officials prepare to meet Thursday in Turkey for peace talks. Trump and his party have railed against the billions in U.S. munitions sent to aid Ukraine, while the president himself vowed that he could reach an agreement to end the conflict that broke out in 2022 and has since killed hundreds of thousands. The actual process has taken longer, but has reached the first real potential for a resolution since fighting began three years ago.
With Trump bleeding some support at home thanks to the chaos of his tariff policies and cost-cutting at the federal government, politicking across Ukraine and the Middle East seems to be areas where the president sees an opportunity for significant wins tied to his trademark dealmaking brand.
How those deals turn out could end up defining much of the legacy of his second presidency.
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