Former State Department official Eliot A. Cohen is a prominent neoconservative who has led the ‘Never Trump’ faction of the Republican party. After Trump was elected, he suggested that younger Republican national security wonks might consider working for him. But it didn’t take long for Cohen to rescind that advice: ‘After exchange [with] Trump transition team, changed my recommendation,’ Cohen said on Twitter. ‘Stay away. They’re angry, arrogant, screaming ‘you LOST!’ Will be ugly.’
The battle between Trump and the GOP national security establishment has now been joined. Trump’s principal opponents may not be Democrats, who are cooing over his talk of a massive infrastructure bill, but Republican hawks, who oppose his call for aligning America with Russia in the fight against terrorism. Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is declaring that Trump is a ‘natural ally’, but on Tuesday the Republican-led House of Representatives fired a preliminary shot at Trump, passing a bi-partisan bill called the ‘Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act’ that calls for sanctions on Syria, Iran and Russia for committing crimes against humanity.
At the same time, Senator John McCain, incensed by Trump’s phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, issued a statement blasting Moscow.
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