President Trump has been harsh on the Middle East policies of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He has good reasons for that. The Obama-Biden era saw the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam, the empowerment of Iran, the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel and ensuing war in Gaza.
In contrast, Trump’s first term had brought stability to the region. Trump led efforts to destroy the Islamic State, repaired fractured relations with the Gulf States and Israel and restored deterrence to the region through shows of force.
Now, in Trump’s second term, he should make sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes as his predecessors, which could embolden Iran and political Islamist movements. Specifically, the president should avoid public conflicts with the government of Israel, take a strong stance against Iran and restore the deterrence that the Biden administration eroded.
To do this, he must take on the isolationist wing of his own administration.
Officials including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Michael DiMino and other isolationist adherents have strongly pushed against any sort of U.S. intervention in the region. But avoiding intervention at all costs is perceived in the Middle East as weakness.
Trump’s rhetoric signals he understands the true meaning of peace through strength, yet some of his actions have signaled something else. Washington halted strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, for instance, after the Houthis promised not to strike U.S. ships. Trump and his secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, have also failed to hold Iran accountable for Houthi actions; even during Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, the Houthis launched rockets at Israel over Saudi airspace.
Administration officials told the New York Times that the operation was costly and the United States was unable to establish air superiority. Such claims seem strange, considering the United States spends more than the next nine countries combined on its military.
Trump also avoided a stopover in Israel during his recent Middle East tour, inspiring reports of a widening gulf between Washington and Jerusalem. This is dangerous, as Israel plays a key part in establishing regional deterrence. While the U.S. prematurely aborted its attacks against the Houthis, Israel has decimated Hezbollah — Iran’s greatest deterrent — destroyed Iranian air defenses and carried out targeted assassinations against top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials. Washington still urgently needs Israel as an enforcer.
The danger of such policy is that regional adversaries like Iran stop taking U.S. statements seriously.
Read the rest at The Hill.
Joseph Epstein is the Director of the Turan Research Center, a senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute and a research fellow at the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
