Donald Trump assesses one of his biggest decisions – whether it is a question of launching air strikes on Iran – after weeks of troubles in his foreign policy team, including the dismissal of the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
Fox News and other conservative media watched by the American president offer advice.
But who is Asset Listen in the oval office, where will he decide to go to war? His closest advisers are two of the president’s potential successors, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the property developer who has become Steve Witkoff, and CIA director John Ratcliffe.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems less influential than General Dan Caine, president of joint staff chiefs, and General Michael Kurilla, Commander of the American army in the Middle East.
The inner circle
Jd vance
No later than March, the 40 -year -old vice -president – skeptical of American military interventionism throughout his short political career – warned that it would be an “error” for America to strike the Houthi rebels supported by Iran in Yemen.
But by this week, Vance – who has regular t-head contact with Trump and is considered to be the precursor of the republican presidential appointment 2028- rationalized a possible attack on Iranian nuclear installations.
“Of course, people are right to worry about foreign tangle after the last 25 years of silly foreign policy. But I believe that the president has gained some confidence on this issue,” he wrote on X.
Marco Rubio
Former Florida senator, 54, quickly earned Trump’s ear foreign policy In the first months of his second term. Rubio is not only Secretary of State, but also replaced Waltz as a national security advisor, making it a permanent element in the White House.
Rubio is traditionally a fellowship on American foreign interventions, but has adapted to the so-called more guarded approach of Trump.
Among the secretaries of the cabinet, he has the largest national political profile and could potentially be a rival of vance in 2028. For the moment, he has worked on telephones with foreign ministers around the world to keep them informed of Trump’s changing opinions on Iran.
Steve Witkoff
Steve Witkoff, 68, has known Trump for decades as a real estate promoter colleague, trading partner and golfer.
But despite his weak diplomatic experience, Trump instructed Witkoff of the main negotiations on the most sensitive international issues in America. Among them is Ukraine: Witkoff went to Moscow and had interviews with President Vladimir Putin to end his neighbor’s invasion by Russia.
As a Middle East, he managed the American delegation by negotiating with Tehran in the past two months, and is still in touch with Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs. If Trump concludes a late agreement to avoid war with Iran, the role of Witkoff will be crucial. But he worked without his former deputy, Morgan Ortagus, who recently left the administration.
Hawks
John Ratcliffe
When Trump summoned his best advisers on Iran to Camp David this month, it was CIA chief John Ratcliffe who carried out the most disturbing evaluation of Tehran’s intentions.
Ratcliffe, 59, is a well -known Hawk Iran, going back to his time as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term.
During a recent camera session with the legislators, he compared Iran’s nuclear ambitions to that of an American football team that was walking on the field and near the scoring, according to the Washington Post. “This is to say that a football team walked 99 yards on the ground, has arrived at the line of a meter,” he said.
Michael Kurilla
US military general Michael Kurilla – known as “Erik” and nicknamed “The Gorilla” – leaves his position as commander of the US central command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East this summer after three years. But Kurilla’s influence on Trump’s thought is far from declining.
In fact, the general of Californian origin who served in Mosul, Iraq, is among the most influential voices of the administration in Iran, since he would direct any operation alongside Israel to destroy the nuclear capacities of Tehran. He is known to be close to the Israeli army.
Mike Huckabee
While taking a tour of the launch of a strike on Iranian nuclear installations this week, Trump published a message from Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel, on Truth Social. He said that no president had been “in a position like yours … Since Truman in 1945”: a reference to the American leader who authorized nuclear bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War in the Pacific.
“You have not looked for this moment. This moment looked for you! ” Huckabee told Trump. He added: “I think you will hear from the sky and that voice is much more important than mine or that of others.”
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, is not only ardently pro-Israeli, but represents the evangelical Christian base of Trump. He is a fellow worker on Iran and pushes the president to get involved on the side of Israel.
Loyalists
Dan Caine
General Dan Caine, 56, was torn from Trump to replace General CQ Brown as president of the joint staff chiefs, or military officer and US military advisor to the president.
An Air Force pilot nicknamed “Razin”, Caine patrolled in the sky of Washington in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, then served in Iraq.
But the main trait that attached him to Trump was his loyalty, at a time when the president plans not only a new military action in the Middle East, but also greater use of American troops at the national level to cancel protests and apply his repression of immigration.
“I love you, sir. I think you are great, sir. I will kill for you, sir,” Caine told Trump, according to the story of the president of their meeting in 2018.
Pete Hegseth
The former Fox News host, aged 45, barely survived his confirmation vote in the American Senate and had trouble staying in his work after having published sensitive information on military operations in Yemen on a group cat shared with a journalist.
But HegSeth is still in charge of the Pentagon, even if the military leaders seem to advise Trump more closely on the strategy. The defense secretary insists that he presents to Trump all the plans and options he needs to make his final decision on American participation.
“At the Ministry of Defense, our work consists in staying ready and prepared with options. And that is precisely what we are doing,” he said this week during an audience on Capitol Hill.
The aberrant value
Tulsi Gabbard
The former Democrat deputy of Hawaii became an ally of Trump during the 2024 campaign, while he was trying to court disgruntled left voters – in particular with his wish to end the era of “Forever Wars” in America.
But after obtaining the high -level work of the national intelligence director, Gabbard, 44, is already in hot water with the administration and was openly reprimanded by Trump after having declared in March that Iran had not started its nuclear program.
“She is wrong,” Trump said about Gabbard on Friday afternoon when he landed in New Jersey after a flight from Washington. Earlier in the week, the president said that he did not care what Gabbard said on the Iranian nuclear program.
