Trump's security and defense chiefs pose tangible threat to Tehran
President-elect Donald Trump’s latest nominations in security, intelligence and defense are set to cause concern in Tehran as key roles are filling up with figures not shy to take military action.
Kristi Noem is taking the helm of homeland security, John Ratcliffe as the CIA director and Pete Hegseth will be defense secretary.
Noem has been vocally supportive of Israel and branded Iran an “enemy of America”, slamming the first ever direct attack on Israel from Iran in April which saw Tehran send 350 drones and missiles to the Jewish state.
Following the attack, she posted on Instagram: “We stand with the people of Israel against this unprecedented attack. Iran is also an enemy to America. And I expect decisive action from our country on behalf of Israel.”
She was vehemently against President Barak Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, the JCPOA, and called it “poorly negotiated”.
"The Obama-era Iran deal was poorly negotiated, failed to permanently stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities, and undermined American security and that of our ally Israel," she said in a statement in May 2018 after Trump canned the deal.
"We should have walked away from this agreement at the very beginning, and I'm proud that President Trump has been bold enough to do so."
She had joined others in the House in voting down Obama's nuclear deal in September 2015, but the legislation was never signed into law.
With alleged attacks being plotted by Iran on US soil, Noem will be a fierce opponent as she will be closely tied to border protection, immigration and working alongside the US Secret Service.
As head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump loyalist John Ratcliffe will be another fierce opponent for Tehran.
As Director of National Intelligence, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, he was among multiple officials accusing Iran of meddling in the elections. He said the Islamic Republic was responsible for a barrage of emails sent to intimidate voters.
He has accused the Biden administration of being too soft on Iran, and in the midst of Iran’s proxy war against Israel, slammed the administration for threatening to withhold weapons to the Jewish state as endangering a key regional ally.
He has been a vocal opponent of suggestions to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the terror list in the US and has been supportive of Israel’s recent operations in Iran.
He told Fox News that "what Israel has done is essentially employ 'the Trump doctrine': a maximum-pressure campaign, understanding the only way to deter terrorists like Iran and their proxies is to put your foot on their throat. Israel has done that, we should be assisting Israel in doing so.”
Trump’s pick for defense secretary will be no less challenging for Tehran. Military veteran Pete Hegseth will no doubt reverse many of the “woke” policies he criticized the Biden administration for.
The Fox News host called for military action against Iran as early as 2020. Speaking on Fox News, he said: "They are not as capable as they want the world to believe they are. They want something to sell for internal propaganda. I totally get that. None of this though changes the calculation of this regime, which is an evil regime.”
Warning about Iran's nuclear threat, he said, "I happen to believe that we can't kick the can down the road any longer in trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb,” calling for targeted strikes.
“What better time than now to say, we're starting the clock, you've got a week, you've got X amount of time before we start taking out your energy production facilities. We take out key infrastructure. We take out your missile sites. We take out nuclear developments," he said at the time.
Making it clear he did not want a repeat of Iraq or Afghanistan, he said he is not calling for boots on the ground or endless war, but said “Iran has been in endless war with us for 40 years. Either we put up and shut up now and stop it”.
The new appointments come on the back of other pro-Israel, anti-Iran aides.
Trump has also announced Representative Elise Stefanik of New York is to become United Nations ambassador, Representative Mike Waltz of Florida will take over as national security advisor, and it is expected that Senator Marco Rubio of Florida will become secretary of State.
All have been supportive of a "maximum pressure" approach to Iran while backing Israel in its fight against the two allies' mutual enemy.
