Trump's tendency to rely on pro-Russian and isolationist figures is backfiring on him

Since taking office, Donald Trump has made controversial decisions by relying on certain ideological profiles.

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One of the most problematic issues is related to the isolationists of the MAGA movement, some of whom are known sympathizers of Vladimir Putin's dictatorship and/or disseminators of the slogans of its propaganda outlets. One of these figures is Joe Kent, appointed by Trump as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who today submitted his resignation, publishing a letter in which he criticizes the United States' military intervention in Iran. He does so by aligning himself with the isolationist tenets of the "America First" movement and launching attacks against Israel, claiming that the intervention was the result of pressure from a powerful lobby.

It's amusing to see all sorts of media outlets today, even those openly opposed to Trump, brandishing Kent's letter to try to discredit an intervention in Iran that certainly isn't one of Trump's misguided decisions, even if there were flaws in the operation's planning. Two years ago, Kent participated in a podcast hosted by Tucker Carlson, a journalist known for his pro-Russian stances, as I pointed out here a few months ago. The transcript of Kent's words in that podcast can be read here. Regarding the possibility of an intervention in Iran, Kent stated:

"They have a lot of internal strife with the Ayatollah, and that government has only been in power since 1979. But again, if we start conducting strikes in Iran, everyone in Iran will rally around their leader, and they will become even more revolutionary. Then we will have Iranian proxies throughout the entire region that will be conducting attacks just like we had in Jordan. Really in the long term, Tucker, the axis that has been built really since Putin invaded Russia, and we decided that since Putin invaded Ukraine, and we decided we were going to throw this massive sanctions package at them, China has come in as a major player, and we are deeply compromised by China."

The Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the US intervention, February 28, and the Iranian people's reaction was to celebrate in the streets. In fact, the Iranian people have been massacred by the ayatollahs' regime and are fed up with it. The problem arises when your worldview prevents you from seeing reality. And this is what's happening to Kent.

In April 2022, during a conference, Kent stated: "Here, in Washington D.C., our political establishment right now seems to be dead set on driving us into a catastrophic conflict with Russia or a conflict within our own economy.". At that same conference, Kent endorsed the theses that Russian propaganda has been disseminating for years:

"The West has been pushing up onto the borders of Russia, via Uraine now, for quite some time, the most notably the 2014 made on revolution, that the U.S. state department, the U.S. government at least encouraged, if not fully helped plan and execute. That brought this current regime into power. Putin or any pragmatic russian leader would see this as a provocation right on their borders, because it is the current Iukrainian government makes no uh makes no bones about it they want to join the European Union, they want to join NATO, this is a threat to Vladimir Putin."

Kent also lamented the United States' response to Russia after the start of that invasion:

"We've deployed billions and billions of dollars of U.S. lethal aid that's being used to kill Russian troops right now. We have imposed crippling sanctions on Russia. We've kicked them off the SWIFT system. We've essentially kicked them out of the world economy, and we even have Joe Biden referring to vladimir putin as a war criminal. This language is very dangerous and very specific."

Likewise, Kent proposed yielding to Russia and stated that Putin's aspiration to seize eastern Ukraine was "very reasonable." Here are his exact words:

"We must be pragmatic. There is a clear path to peace in Ukraine. Putin has laid out what he wants in Ukraine it's a decent starting point. Now taking control of the provinces the Russian-speaking provinces to the East and Lugansk. That's very reasonable. Those provinces are already Russian speaking. Any way, if you want to break off anyways having some form of a ceasefire, making those concessions to Putin is very reasonable."

In short, Trump entrusted the National Counterterrorism Center to a man who proposes yielding to a terrorist regime, Moscow's, a regime that is committing all kinds of atrocities in Ukraine and that has been supporting another terrorist regime, Tehran's, which is itself one of the main promoters of Islamist terrorism internationally. And coincidentally, Kent is now resigning because of Trump's decision to decapitate that terrorist regime.

What happened with Kent should serve to show Trump and many of his supporters that the isolationist and pro-Russian positions of many members of the MAGA movement do not make the United States stronger, as the current president's famous campaign slogan suggested. What it does is favor the enemies of the West and the United States, leaving them free to extend their influence and dominance. Ukraine is the clearest example, but not the only one. The policy of weakness pursued by various US administrations toward Iran has only contributed to strengthening the Islamist regime. In this, Trump has corrected a mistake of many years. What is incomprehensible is that in the case of Ukraine he insists on doing just the opposite, being demanding of the invaded country and not the invading country. This is not how peace is achieved: this is only how thugs like Putin are strengthened.

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Photo: White House.