The escalation of U.S.-Iran tensions over the weekend attack on key Saudi oil facilities, and the pending unveiling of the administration’s Middle East plan, are raising the stakes in President Trump’s search for a new national security adviser to replace the ousted John Bolton.
Those events are drawing heightened attention to 1 of the 5 under consideration for that job, Brian Hook, because he is the lead State Department adviser on Iran and is working with top Trump adviser Jared Kushner on the critical Middle East plan.
Hook, who also has key roles in the president’s North Korea, Africa, religious freedom, and international pro-life policies, was considered a leading choice even before before the administration blamed Iran for the attack in Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Yemini Houthi rebels.
Iran has rejected the claim, made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Hook’s boss, and has threatened to attack U.S. facilities in the area in retaliation.
Iran has long been a focus of Trump, who decried the Obama-era deal with the terrorist nation on the 2016 campaign trail. It is also Pompeo’s top issue.
“Brian has led Iran strategy,” said a White House official. “He is successfully finding different ways to implement the president’s goal from all the way back to the election.”
Special Representative for #Iran Brian Hook announced that the U.S. is offering rewards of up to $15 million for anyone who can help disrupt the financial operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Submit a tip by visiting https://t.co/mpTeFmrsJg. pic.twitter.com/H5JM4PiYau
— Department of State (@StateDept) September 5, 2019
According to reports, Trump has begun interviewing candidates for the Bolton post. He is expected to announce his pick as soon as this week.
He met with hostage negotiator Robert C. O’Brien on Friday. Others include Ricky Waddell, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Grennell, ambassador to Germany and Trump advocate in Europe, and Keith Kellogg, Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser.
In the administration, how the president selects top aides remains a mystery, though it is well known that he demands 24/7 dedication and loyalty.
While he is considered a front-runner, with Grennell, according a report in the Hill newspaper, Hook has been fighting off a 2016 Politico report that portrayed him as a Never Trumper, a story he complained about at the time and was not interviewed for.
His critics have seized on the report in which he is quoted saying of Never Trump diplomats, “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.”
But two sources close to Hook said that he was explaining the Never Trump phenomenon, not joining in. They also point out that the author of the story was fired after posting a vulgar tweet about Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Hook also refused to sign two letters from diplomats critical of the president, including one from a group he co-founded, the John Jay Initiative.
Further, Secrets has learned that he was an early member of the Trump transition team in 2016, then headed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and continued on after the election to help vet top aides with Trump adviser Bill Hagerty, who just announced plans to run for the Tennessee Senate seat opened by Sen. Lamar Alexander’s plan to retire.
Hook, a former adviser to Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, was one of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first picks, heading the influential Office of Policy Planning, the department’s think tank. He was the only Tillerson aide asked to stay on by Pompeo, who put him in charge of Iran policy.
Over time he expanded his portfolio to include Middle East peace, working with Kushner and Trump aide Stephen Miller, advocated the administration’s pro-life policies on the international stage, and created the State Department’s two “Ministerials To Advance Religious Freedom.” He has also been a public cheerleader for Trump’s Iran policy, writing about it last week in the Wall Street Journal.
Former Trump national security spokesman Michael Anton said of Hook, “While I was there, I saw Brian do what the president asked him to do, not do things the president didn’t ask him to do, and also not fail to do things the president asked him to do.”
And Marjorie Dannenfelser, who heads the pro-life Susan B. Anthony’s List, said, “Brian Hook has been an unwavering advocate for President Trump’s pro-life agenda abroad.”
Another hurdle he faces is a State Department inspector general’s probe of Hook’s effort to clean Trump critics out of Foggy Bottom, specifically his targeting an Obama holdover who wrote a column critical of Trump in foreign policy but who still works at the State Department.
But while congressional Democrats have expressed alarm, Hook’s moves have been cheered in the administration which has struggled to fill political jobs and sideline Obama holdovers.
