"The killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been the dream of Washington war hawks for decades. American troops are dead, too, and Trump and his allies are hand-waving away the losses. Trump's second term seems to represent the return, full blast, of this pre-MAGA, right-wing foreign-policy consensus."
"It's a surprising turnabout for the hawks after what they endured in the 2024 campaign: Trump, to great cheers, promised 'no new wars' and all of his sycophants tried to portray Kamala Harris as the unhinged warmongerer, the instrument of undead neoconservative thought."
"Giving Rubio the most powerful foreign-policy position in his second administration was a tremendous pivot, one that few saw coming. In the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump mocked his eventual secretary of State for being a neocon: Rubio, he said, was a 'perfect little puppet' of hawkish megadonor Sheldon Adelson."
Trump's second term represents a dramatic reversal from his 2024 campaign messaging of 'no new wars.' Neoconservatives, previously sidelined during the MAGA movement, have reasserted control over foreign policy. The killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and military actions against Iran and Venezuela signal a return to aggressive interventionism reminiscent of the Bush era. This shift is particularly striking given Trump's prior criticism of neoconservatives and his appointment of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State—the same figure Trump mocked in 2016 as a neoconservative puppet. Vice President J.D. Vance, who recently advocated against war with Iran, represents the isolationist faction now seemingly sidelined in Trump's administration.
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