President Trump’s “America First” allies are waging a campaign to force Brian Hook out of consideration to replace John Bolton as national security adviser.
Hook, more than any other contender, alarms supporters of Trump’s establishment-rejecting nationalist foreign policy who are agitating against Hook inside the White House and highlighting Hook’s history of association with Trump’s enemies.
As candidate Trump denounced foreign military interventions, the now-U.S. special representative for Iran Hook seemed to flirt with Never-Trumpism, saying in 2016, “Even if you say you support him as the nominee, you go down the list of his positions and you see you disagree on every one.”
Hook, who founded the John Hay Initiative in 2013 with fellow Mitt Romney advisers, joined the Trump administration under then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He formed part of “the threesome” of senior aides to Tillerson, a man Trump grew to loathe, fired, and called “dumb as a rock.”
Foes of a Bolton-style foreign policy, which included brinksmanship with Iran and quarter-backing a failed military uprising in Venezuela, say Trump should pick someone with views close to his own.
Hook is “super anti-Trump,” a senior administration official told the Washington Examiner.
“Brian Hook would make John Bolton look like a Trump supporter on national security,” said a former senior administration official who remains close to the White House.
“Hook would be incredibly hard to swallow,” said a different former senior administration official, who added: “We are in [2020] campaign season now and a lot of these things rub campaign donors and loyalists the wrong way.”
A person close to the White House who has interacted with Hook socially mocked his “ham handed” recent email to the captain of an Iranian oil tanker that British officials impounded and then released in Gibraltar. In the message, Hook asked the captain to help the U.S. detain his ship.
“It just seems like the guy is so desperate for a conflict with Iran. He’s fanatical,” the source said. “He’s a very typical Washington insider who has internalized all the group think Washington has on these issues.”
Hook, who could not be reached for comment, has allies within the administration and among some outside groups, who highlight his pro-life, anti-Iran resume and describe his remarks about Never Trumpism as an attempt to explain rather than endorse the viewpoint.
Hook is said to be close to Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, whom he joined on Trump’s first trip abroad in 2017, with stops in Saudi Arabia and the Vatican.
He’s also seen as one of at least three contenders close to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is influencing the selection process. Others close to Pompeo include U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Biegun, and assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ricky Waddell.
The first major whack at Hook came the day Bolton was fired last week, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson denouncing him. But he has endured on lists of apparent front-runners, mystifying his foes.
“If Trump watches that [Carlson segment], no way he picks him,” said the current senior administration official.
In his report, Carlson said that Hook had privately expressed disdain for Trump, allegedly saying, “I think the president is reckless and doesn’t understand policy.”
Opponents of Hook have various favorites, including retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who occasionally appears on Carlson’s program, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is seen as a middle-ground option, and Rob Blair, an adviser to White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Blair has questioned the value of defense spending relative to the cost of debt.
Waddell, who is regarded as low-key and even-keeled, also is considered acceptable by some America Firsters.
Other contenders include Biegun, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who currently advises Vice President Mike Pence, and attorney and U.S. hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien who is a potential dark horse said to get along well with Trump.
Dan DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, contradicts the view of Hook allies that an unfolding crisis involving an attack on Saudi oilfields, potentially carried out by Iran, helps Hook’s cause.
“He sold the president on a strategy that is having short-term economic impacts on the Iranian economy but no long-term effect on making Tehran’s foreign policy any less hostile,” DePetris said. “The sales job was based on flimsy premises from the start—that with enough economic pressure, Iran will come crawling back to the table ready to give away the store. Anybody who has studied Iran for more than five minutes would tell you this was a terrible assumption to make.”
“The president needs a national security adviser who is synchronized with his own instincts and understands that Iran is a middling power, not a ten-foot-tall giant. Brian Hook is not that person,” DePetris said.
