Trump Foreign Policy
March 1, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Last night the Outsiders hosts focused on the conflict in Iran, with each of them–Rowan Dean, Rita Panahi and James Morrow–delivering an editorial. Rita was especially jubilant, being of Iranian extraction. I was on to give the reaction from the U.S. and talk about the impact on U.S. politics: As a brief bonus, these are Rita’s parting words to the Ayatollah: A very special message in Farsi from Sky News
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March 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In “Why did Trump pull the trigger?” I observed this morning that George W. Bush chose to ignore the death and mangling of American soldiers facilitated by the Iranian regime on American soldiers serving in Iraq. The Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran subsequently drew on his own personal experience as the Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs on the National Security Council serving George W. Bush to recall:
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March 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran elaborates on the joint aspect of the operation against the Iranian regime. It is the fruition of a beautiful friendship that President Trump has embraced: * * * * * The Israeli press is stressing a key difference between the June 2025 war and the present campaign: the United States and Israel are functioning as closely integrated allies from the outset. In June they operated
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March 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
ABC News Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl somehow thought that this was the moment we needed to hear from Tucker Carlson. In an interview Saturday morning, Karl elicited Carlson’s condemnation of the joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran. Carlson said the attack on Iran is “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Well said, in a sense. A purer case of projection you will never find. I can think of many reasons why Trump might
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February 28, 2026 — John Hinderaker
There are not words violent enough to express my disdain for the liberals (and handful of purported conservatives) who care nothing for the security of the United States, let alone the future of the Iranian people or the prospect of peace in the Middle East. They care only about their own political power and their obsessive hatred of President Trump. So I am going to post this tweet by an
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February 28, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Seemingly with one voice, Democrats have denounced the administration’s attack on Iran as “illegal” and “unconstitutional.” But the Democrats’ views on legality vary wildly, depending on who is in the White House. My friend Ilan Wurman, Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, points out the obvious parallel between Iran and Libya: If it's constitutional to bomb Libya per the Obama Administration's OLC framework, directly resulting in the capture
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February 28, 2026 — John Hinderaker
This morning the Israelis bombed Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound, where a meeting of Khamenei and other top regime leaders was believed to be taking place. Conflicting reports about the Supreme Leader’s status have since emerged, without any definitive news. A little while ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Israeli people. Some excerpts: “This morning, Israel and the United States launched a joint operation to remove the existential threat to Israel
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February 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Following through on his public statements and other signs of impending action, President Trump announced the initiation of major combat operations against the Iranian regime overnight. He made the announcement in a video posted to his Truth Social account (below). Text of the president’s remarks is posted here. The Pentagon has denominated the action as “Operation Epic Fury” and Israel has named it “Roaring Lion” — this is an operation
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February 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker
At 10:24 this morning, Friday February 27, the United States Ambassador to Israel emailed his own staff and told them to leave the country today. Not next week. Not when convenient. Today. Mike Huckabee, the man Donald Trump personally appointed to represent America in Israel,… pic.twitter.com/EJkr6CxNkP — Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) February 27, 2026 Full text: At 10:24 this morning, Friday February 27, the United States Ambassador to Israel
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February 19, 2026 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times covers looming U.S. strikes on Iran: The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump has the option to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, administration and Pentagon officials said, leaving the White House with high-stakes choices about pursuing diplomacy or war. President Trump has been trying to negotiate with the mullahs over
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February 14, 2026 — John Hinderaker
I want to add to Scott’s comments immediately below on Secretary Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich Security Conference by asking, what did the Europeans think of it? Actually, if you watch the video to the end, the question answers itself: Rubio got a rapturous standing ovation. The European who came out at the end to ask Marco a few questions began by saying that the room had received his
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February 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State Rubio spoke at the Munich Security Conference earlier today. The Department of State has posted the video below along with the transcript of his remarks here. The video and transcript include a few questions and answers following his prepared remarks. Toward the end of his speech he reviewed the peopling of America by European immigrants. Here he brought his family story into the mix: [I]n the year
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February 4, 2026 — Scott Johnson
President Trump doesn’t want to undertake military operations against Iran, but I doubt he wants to be seen as betrarying his own Obamaesque “red line” either. The Iranian regime is tranparent in some limited respects. With “negotiations” scheduled for Friday, Bloomberg now reports: Iran has asked the US to move diplomatic talks originally planned for Turkey to Oman and to limit the agenda to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, according
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January 31, 2026 — John Hinderaker
For decades, Europe’s NATO countries were largely free riders when it came to national defense. The United States mostly bore the burden of defending all NATO members against the Russians and whatever other threats might materialize. That made sense when Europe was devastated in the aftermath of World War II, but more recently it has been an unhealthy dependence, as Europe has more people and about as much wealth as
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January 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
around his Democratic interlocutors (and Rand Paul) in his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. The Department of State has posted video of his testimony along with a transcript here. Need I add that the Department of State has posted his testiomny because Rubio is our Secretary of State? I don’t think so, but it sounds good to my ears. Here is one highlight. LMAO—Krazy Kaine tries to
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January 23, 2026 — John Hinderaker
I am deeply skeptical of artificial intelligence for several reasons, but this is pretty cool. AI, whatever its faults, does have an upside. If the video doesn’t immediately load, try refreshing the page: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nadim Messihi (@nadim.messihi.ofc)
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January 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker
In recent weeks, President Trump has threatened to seize Greenland by force. Of course there was never any chance of that happening, any more than that we would “annex” Canada. I don’t know why Trump thinks such threats are useful. In any event, he has now backed off: Greenland was the main topic of the president’s speech to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, where he ruled out using military
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