Liberal gadfly and independent reporter Michael Tracey (once considered something of a MAGA "asset") continues his crusade against the incoming Trump administration, arguing that it isn´t really isolationist.
The pro-Trump cliques in the GOP establishment are just as bellicose and interventionist as the neoconservatives (many of which became Never Trumpers back in 2016). And what about the Donald himself? At what point will MAGA realize that their Messiah, too, is one of the dreaded RINOs of the GOP-e? If you pardon my, ahem, MAGA lingo.
The idea that Trump is somehow fighting the "neocons" is true only in the extremely narrow sense mentioned above: many of the original neocons refused to kiss Trump´s ass and de facto (and sometimes even de jure) regrouped around the Democratic Party instead. But Trump´s actual policies are barely distinguishable from those associated with the neocons.
Here is a key paragraph of Tracey´s essay (linked below):
>>>One of the few permitted critiques of Trump in MAGA/LaLa Land had previously been that Trump was a political novice in the first term, and was beguiled by the wily “neocons” who exploited his youth and inexperience. As facile as that argument was, it at least had the benefit of reflecting some partial reality: Trump indeed had no governing record or long-established political operation. But in 2024, that argument is comically absurd.
>>>Trump singularly dominates the Republican Party more than perhaps any figure in American history, as evidenced by his unprecedented thrice-consecutive presidential nomination. He can pick winners of Republican congressional primaries with a single Truth Social post, and even ousted the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus earlier this year for no apparent reason other than the poor sap’s initial endorsement of Ron DeSantis. He installed his own daughter-in-law to run the Republican National Committee.
>>>By now, he’s had over eight years to assemble a personnel roster that best represents whatever his policy preferences may be — and he has largely assembled a team of “neocons,” if that term had any cognizable meaning, which it doesn’t.
Tracey predicts that the Trump Administration will end up having a worse foreign policy than even the current Biden Administration (which he doesn´t particularly fancy either) by escalating the war in Ukraine, permitting Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza, and perhaps even launch a bombing campaign against Iran. At least his take on Ukraine is hardly standard orthodoxy.
I suppose we will see soon enough...if we dare looking!
Is Donald Trump a neocon?
