Why Neo-Cons Hate Trump
Podcast: Download
Darrell Castle talks about Present Trump’s trip to the Middle East and how it reflects Trump’s vision of the world — how it can be more peaceful and prosperous for everyone.
Transcription / Notes
WHY NEO-CONS HATE TRUMP
Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 16th day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about President Trump’s trip to the Middle East which should be finishing just about as I record this report. The trip reflects Trump’s vision of the world and how it can be more peaceful, and prosperous for everyone, in other words the anti-neo-con view of the world.
President Trump is currently on a Presidential trip to several Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, his first stop, and then several of the Gulf Arab States including Qatar, the second stop. While he was in Riyadh, he spoke to the new leader of Syria which is interesting because until the fall of Assad that man was listed as a wanted international terrorist. Apparently Mr. Erdogan of Turkey joined in the conversation by phone and lobbied Trump to lift the sanctions on Syria which Trump agreed to do. His reception by the Middle East countries has been phenomenal and met with similar joy as his election was met with joy by his supporters. That joy is in reality hope for what could be and hopefully will be with the Trump Presidency.
When Air Force One entered Saudi air space six Saudi jet fighters came out and flew escort for the descent into Riyadh. The Crown Prince, Bin Salman came out to personally greet his arrival something he publicly did not do when President Biden visited. A long purple carpet stretched from the airplane steps to the waiting limousines while American music played from loudspeakers. The Saudis even rigged up a mobile McDonalds restaurant on the trailer of a large truck in reference to the President’s legendary fondness for McDonalds cheeseburgers.
Trump seems to have an affinity for Middle East people and especially their leaders because he shares a few things in common with them. He doesn’t drink and he does not condemn their culture and way of life. Let me pause here for a moment and give a little history to illustrate my point.
First we have George H.W. Bush’s war to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with its “this aggression will not stand rhetoric.” Then we have 8 years of Bill Clinton’s no fly zone over Iraq with its starvation of hundreds of thousands, allegedly. We then follow that with 8 years of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror with its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. We follow that with 8 years of Barack Obama’s Afghanistan the good war as opposed to Iraq the bad war. Donald Trump comes in and tries to extricate himself from Afghanistan but Joe Biden finally does it, albeit with an extreme cost. Joe Biden almost immediately becomes embroiled in a European war between Ukraine and Afghanistan so it’s basically been a 25-year struggle of war which means killing, dying, and total destruction.
The leaders of the Middle East apparently see this man Trump with his prosperity instead of war rhetoric and they like it and are hopeful. His statements before the trip reflected the new attitude and purpose of the trip. He said he wanted to make new deals for peace and profit and that went over especially well in the Saudi Kingdom. Quote from the President, “a land of peace, safety, harmony, opportunity, innovation, and achievement right here in the Middle East is within our grasp.” That was apparently music to the ears of Bin Salman and when you think about it’s hard for me to find fault with that ambition.
Perhaps Trump’s joyous reception is because his approach to foreign policy in general and the Middle East in particular, in contrast to all those presidents I just mentioned, is not ideological. To illustrate here’s a quote from the President that was apparently well received in Saudi ears, “too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it is our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins.” In closing he said, “I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgment—my job is to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.”
That view of American policy toward the Middle East is the exact opposite of how those former presidents I mentioned seemed to view their roles. The purpose of those wars, we were constantly told, was to democratize and liberalize those countries. There were always just a small handful of rogue states and just a handful of religious fanatic terrorists who actually seemed to believe the words in that book written about 1200 years ago. If the US could just win its wars thus bringing regime change to those rogue states the rest of the Middle East would be inspired to accept Western values including its modern view of women and especially homosexuals. Then the Middle East would become Switzerland.
Believe it or not, the entire Middle East resisted the approach although some nations pretended not to because they thought cooperation with America was better than war with America. Other neo-cons supported the wars for different reasons, but essentially the wars were non-partisan. So, for 25 years they have all been in it together although for different reasons. For example, the classic neo-con treatise, also non-partisan, was the Project for a New American Century which demanded that America not liberalize the Middle East but subjugate and destroy it so that this century would be dominated by America as it ruled the world order. Despite having different reasons, then, both liberals and conservatives supported the wars including the necessity of killing and dying and of course the bombing of infrastructure into rubble.
This is going to be quite a juggling act for the President over the next few months and years. One of the balls he has to juggle to achieve his vision of a peaceful and prosperous Middle East is Israel. I don’t know how much history Donald Trump knows especially the history portrayed in the bible, but there are people in the Middle East who have literally hated each other for thousands of years. A thousand years before the American Revolution the people in that region hated and made war against each other. Before most of the region was divided into countries as it is today they hated each other. Great Britain, as part of the treaty that ended WWl, divided the sand into lines that they called countries. To some extent that kept a damper on much of the tribal warfare until the state of Israel appeared in 1948 and it has been either war by Israel against its enemies or war by the United States against the enemies of Israel. Donald Trump comes into the picture with a completely different perspective.
Trump seeks prosperity instead of war and perhaps that explains at least part of the hatred of neo-cons on both sides of the isle against him. Is the U.S. congress Israeli occupied territory as Fritz Hollins said it was. If so, then Trump will have a difficult time overcoming the voices united against him but time will tell on that. Worthy of note is that the one Middle East country not on the President’s agenda is Israel. Is that a not-so-subtle message, well it seems that way to me. Word of warning to the President, the last president who had problems with Israel’s expansionist goals was John Kennedy as well as future candidate for president, Robert, his brother. The rest of them, JFK’s successors, all seem to have learned their lesson.
Well, President Trump has survived two assassination attempts that we know of, one of which wounded him and he didn’t miss a beat so maybe that display of guts and bravado makes him more admirable to Middle East rulers. It’s pretty clear that he has not allowed hatred, threats, and intimidation by the media to sway him from his agenda. So, he is left with some real head scratcher problems if he is to accomplish anything on this visit besides commerce. Can he make peace while war rages on between Israel and Hamas as well as Israel and the Houthis. Apparently the Iranians, in anticipation of talks with Trump, told their proxies, the Houthis in Yemen to stop attacking American assets.
If you are looking to find peace with its accompanying prosperity, attacking American warships with the President in the region would be a very bad look so back off. The Houthi restraint might be temporary but it is on for now and that is better than nothing. Trump also seems to be a man who knows when to hold um and when to fold um which is a very desirable trait in a president. Too many times, the US has started a war with no way out so when he saw that developing in the Red Sea he just declared victory and went home.
The Israelis, on the other hand continue the war against the Houthis conducting daily bombing strikes all over Yemen. They continue to pound the rubble of Gaza dropping thousands of tons of bombs into what appears to be rubble worse than pictures of some of the German cities after WWll. There are reports and pictures coming out of Gaza of starvation on a scale that defies all the semblance of humanity. Are those reports true, exaggerated, or lies. I don’t know the answer to that, but if they are true it’s hard to see how any civilized person could continue to be a party to it. Mass starvation of children, as Joe Biden would say, come on man.
In conclusion folks, I want to bring this Castle Report to a conclusion with a quote from Dr. Ron Paul, “Having ignited the tinder box of the region with US backing, Israel has now found itself friendless in a region increasingly hostile to its policies and even its very existence. Now there are indications that the Trump Administration is tiring of this entangling alliance as the MAGA base looks more warily on foreign interventionism…Ties forged by trade and friendship produce peace and prosperity and are far preferable to endless neocon war cries.”
Finally, folks, the rumor is that Trump is encouraging the Saudis and Gulf Arabs to formally recognize the State of Israel. In return, the United States would recognize Palestine as a separate state entitled to have an embassy and all accompanying benefits of sovereignty. If that rumor is true it explains why neo-cons hate him so much. He works for peace rather than war.
At least that’s the way I see it,
Until next time folks,
This is Darrell Castle,
Thanks for listening.
