POLITICS: A dangerous faction of Trump’s cabinet pushes for an American retreat

Vice President JD Vance is a principled isolationist voice, but his principles reflect poorly on his judgment.

According to a Signal discussion that accidentally included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, the VP pushed back hard on his boss’s plan to strike the Houthis — Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorists who have been wreaking havoc by attacking ships and disrupting trade in the Red Sea — earlier this month.

After the operation in question, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced, “U.S. Central Command forces initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to restore freedom of navigation and re-establish American deterrence.”

“Houthi terrorists have launched missiles and one-way attack drones at U.S. warships over 170 times and at commercial vessels 145 times since 2003,” added Parnell.

All this was lost on Vance, whose chief concerns were nonexistent domestic political considerations and punishing the United States’ European allies.

“I think we are making a mistake,” Vance told his colleagues.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” he continued before fretting over an entirely hypothetical spike in oil prices.

After Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mounted a full-throated defense of Trump’s decision, explaining how it was in the United States’ best interests, Vance conceded.

“If you think we should do it, let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,” he admitted.

Vance may be correct that Europe is overly reliant on the United States for defense, but his attitude and impression that these strikes could be politically damaging is wrongheaded.

Since when has the electorate objected to the U.S. taking out barbaric, America-hating monsters?

Recall that the bulk of the country celebrated Trump’s order to take out Qasem Soleimani back in 2020.

It was the progressive cocktail party class in Washington — not the working class Americans Vance professes to understand — that clutched their pearls then.

Of course, Vance is merely the highest profile of an entire cohort of misguided foreign policy minds populating the second Trump administration.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has a long history of sympathizing with anti-American authoritarians from Damascus to Moscow.

Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff has already admitted to being duped by Hamas and clearly has been by Vladimir Putin as well.

“It’s just never as black and white as people want to portray,” said Witkoff about Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine over the weekend.

And Darren Beattie, who was appointed to a top post at the State Department, is a shill for the Chinese Communist Party who has suggested the U.S. hand Taiwan over to Xi Jinping.

“Taiwan will inevitably belong to China, it’s only a matter of time. It’s not worth expending any capital to prevent,” submitted Beattie last May.

Ironically, this group calls themselves “realists.”

But their arguments are devoid of the logic and pragmatism they say they favor to lofty idealism.

Indeed, what’s more naive than trusting Putin or Gazan Islamists to honor their word?

What’s more ignorant than believing the disruption of global trade won’t come back to bite the U.S.?

And what’s more counterintuitive than counting any benefit to an ally as a mark against a given course of action?

On the bright side, the voices of reason in the leaked group chat won out.

“Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus,” argued Hegseth.

“2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms.”

“Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes,” agreed National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Some of Trump’s greatest achievements from his first term — the Soleimani and al-Baghdadi operations, the defeat of ISIS, etc. — were the fruit of assertive American action.

As the president is fond of reminding audiences, Hamas and Russia wouldn’t have dared sow the chaos they did under his successor on his watch.

Why? Because he stood steadfastly by Israel and provided Ukraine with lethal aid to defend itself.

Peace through strength — it works.

Moving forward, the president ought to lean more on the members of his team who understand this fundamental truth.

And less on those who question his judgment while demonstrating their own lack thereof.