Trump, not the ‘woke’ right, remains in charge of US policy

The announcement that Col. Daniel Davis was tapped to be deputy director of national intelligence sent shockwaves through the pro-Israel community earlier this week. The post involves supervision of the President’s Daily Brief, a compendium of vital intelligence information that goes to the White House and senior figures throughout the government. That gives anyone in the job a singular ability to direct discourse and influence policy. And for it to go to Davis, whose hostility to Israel is a matter of long-standing record, seemed to indicate that—for want of a better term—the “woke right” was getting into position to wreck the alliance with the Jewish state.

The naming of Davis to this key post by Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, came right after President Donald Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler let loose with some bizarre remarks about his direct contacts with Hamas. The combination of the two stories—coupled with worries about two appointees at the Department of Defense with troubling backgrounds, including antisemitic social-media posts and attacks on Israel—raised doubts about where the administration actually stood.

But almost as soon as it was announced, Davis’s appointment was pulled. And within 24 hours of Boehler’s gob-smacking comments, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was dismissing Boehler’s efforts, with the envoy walking back his puzzling remarks in which he made nice with the Hamas terrorist organization in a post on X.

Moreover, looming above all of these stories was a factor that drained them of much of their significance: Trump’s continued public advocacy not only of support for Israel but of commitments to destroy Hamas and fight the surge of antisemitism on American college campuses.

A vortex of chaos

The Trump presidency can seem like a vortex of chaos most days. The dizzying onslaught of initiatives coming from the White House on both domestic and foreign policy is hard for even experienced journalists to keep track of. And, as is generally the case in Washington, the array of competing factions and ideas—all vying for the attention of the man in the Oval Office—creates an atmosphere that can look like disarray, if not anarchy. Add into the mix a hostile mainstream media eager to exploit any hint of division within the ranks of Trump’s supporters.

Under these circumstances, it can often be difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what is spin when determining where the administration stands on any issue.

Yet if there is anything the world should have learned about Trump by now, it is that he is the one making the big decisions. Everyone does well to monitor what his aides, cabinet secretaries and other officials are doing and saying. The same is true for other figures in his inner circle or its periphery, whether or not they hold office.

The moment we start overthinking the potential influence of anyone not named Donald J. Trump, we generally make mistakes.

That is the proper context for evaluating administration policy on the Middle East and its stance on antisemitism in the United States. And that is doubly true when it comes to understanding just how pervasive the influence of conservatives who are hostile to Israel and tolerant of Jew-hatred has become.

The woke right can make itself heard, but there should be no doubt about the primary source of antisemitism in the United States today. The Democratic Party, which is increasingly dominated by its intersectional left wing, is no longer reliably pro-Israel or even willing to support measures aimed at curbing antisemitism. Anti-Israel figures within the right are marginal; those on the left are calling the tune for their party, as demonstrated by the way that most Democrats have opposed Trump’s efforts to deport a pro-Hamas, Palestinian foreign agitator at Columbia University.

Antisemitism on the right

Still, no one should dismiss the disturbing evidence of antisemitism and hostility to Israel that has emerged on the right or the way some of those associated with it have elbowed their way into Trumpworld.

At the top of that list is former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who is relentlessly hostile to Israel and Jewish concerns. He remains a fixture within the Trump family inner circle, even if his influence on the president’s foreign policy is, at least as far as Israel and the Middle East is concerned, minimal.

Carlson has used his show, which can be viewed on X, to host a number of figures who have engaged in attacks on Israel and the war it is waging on Hamas, including Davis and economist Jeffrey Sachs. He also recently platformed a Holocaust denier. His most recent show—a fawning interview with the prime minister of Qatar, an ally of Hamas and Iran—was even more embarrassing than his tête-à-tête last year with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Carlson’s skepticism about the cause of Ukraine is shared by both Trump and Vice President JD Vance, even if his attacks on Kyiv are far more extreme than even the White House’s tough stance toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But the notion that Israel’s security is tied to the dubious prospect of a Ukrainian “victory” over Russia is a myth. It is largely the work of Zelenskyy’s fans who want to tie flagging support for that war to the much more popular cause of the Jewish state’s battle against Islamist terror. Much of what Carlson is doing recently seems a transparent effort toward convincing Trump to abandon Israel and go easy on Iran—views that are clearly at odds with the president’s stands and that of almost all of the top figures in his administration.

Just as troubling is the way an even more popular podcaster is platforming anti-Israel conspiracy theorists.

Joe Rogan’s show is viewed by more people than just about any show on broadcast and cable-TV news channels. His lengthy interviews with politicians have an outsized impact on their fortunes—reportedly, former Vice President Kamala Harris feared having to sit for a multi-hour grilling by Rogan and passed up a chance to appear on his program—and in an election year where traditional media was largely displaced by podcasts in terms of influence, he’s become one of the most important people in the media.

Yet in addition to hosting people like Trump, he recently platformed antisemitic conspiracy theorist Ian Carroll, who alleged that Israel was behind a cover-up about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. In 2023, Rogan echoed the antisemitic stands of Rep. Ilan Omar (D-Minn.) about Jews buying influence.

Lesser figures, like Candace Owens, are even more brazen in their crackpot antisemitism. But taken as a whole, it’s easy to see how—whatever else they disagree about—the far left and the far right have common ground when it comes to hatred for Jews and Israel.

At odds with conservative opinion

Yet the salient point about all this is despite the large audiences these people can reach, when it comes to their attitudes on Israel, Iran, Hamas and antisemitism, they have far more in common with the political left than with Trump and the overwhelming majority of his supporters. When Davis said that American support for Israel was “a stain on our character as a nation, as a culture, that will not soon go away,” he sounded more like a member of the left-wing congressional “Squad” than a would-be Trump administration staffer.

That they are tolerated by Trump and Vance or remain adjacent to them in some ways is unsettling. Still, Republicans and most conservatives remain strong supporters of Israel, as polls continue to show, even as liberals and left-wingers continue to abandon it. As volatile as his personality may be, Trump has stayed remarkably consistent when it comes to backing the Jewish state since he entered politics 10 years ago. His statements about Hamas and his bitter criticisms of Democrats for their unwillingness to back Israel or to support his measures aimed at stopping antisemitism in the United States make it clear that Carlson, Rogan, Davis and Owens have zero impact on the president’s policies or the views of his voters.

That still leaves the question of where Trump will ultimately come down concerning the negotiations between Israel and Hamas for extending the ceasefire-hostage release deal that went into effect—largely because of the president’s influence—in January.

The various statements about the talks by Steve Witkoff, his special envoy to the Middle East, and Boehler betray their lack of experience in the region. Boehler, in particular, deserved to be fired for his appalling comments on CNN in which he spoke of the murderers of Hamas as “human,” like everyone else.

Trump’s vision for Hamas

This may be part of what Trump considers “the art of the deal,” in which he plays the “bad cop” and his hapless envoys are nice to the terrorists. The president, however, has left no doubt about his demands for the release of all of the hostages Hamas still holds and his willingness to back Israel’s campaign to eradicate the Islamist group from Gaza. His vision of the Strip is one where the Palestinians have been moved out, thus eliminating a persistent threat to Israel’s security and existence.

Unlike the case with the Biden administration, which did everything it could to hamstring Jerusalem’s efforts to finish off Hamas, the main obstacle to that goal is not in the White House. Rather, it’s in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must weigh domestic political pressure against a renewed war on Hamas because it might endanger the lives of the remaining hostages. If Hamas survives this war, it won’t be Trump’s fault.

Supporters of Israel are never going to rest easy or have complete confidence in any president, no matter how supportive he may be to their cause. And the loud voices on the right who are mimicking the hatred and bigotry of the left illustrate the perennial attraction of antisemitism for those who dwell in the fever swamps of American politics, whether on the right or left. That said, there’s no reasonable argument to be made for doubting the sincerity or the reliability of Donald Trump’s stands on Israel and antisemitism.

© JNS