The News
George W. Bush had the hawkish Charles Krauthammer to explain his hawkish presidency to the public and advise him in private. Barack Obama liked talking to The New Yorker’s David Remnick. And Donald Trump has increasingly, improbably turned to a former Bush speechwriter best known for defending the least popular elements of Bush’s foreign policy, the Iraq War and CIA torture: The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen.
And Thiessen may deserve credit for one of the surprises of Trump’s second term: his continued, if measured, support for Ukraine in the face of hostility inside his party and his administration.
“He is doing more to help Ukraine than Biden ever did,” Thiessen declared in a piece ranking the best decisions of the first year of the second Trump presidency.
Post opinion editor Adam O’Neal has told journalists that Thiessen’s calls with Trump regarding Ukraine were influential in persuading Trump to continue to take the country’s side in the conflict in the face of some Republicans pushing for a quick settlement with Russia, people familiar with the Post’s internal conversations said. Thiessen similarly told colleagues at the Post that he believed his columns were shaping Trump’s thinking on the war in Ukraine.
In tweets and on television, he has teased that his well-placed sources have led him to believe that Trump has never been more determined to see the US’ military campaign against Iran through to completion.
The rise of Thiessen, 59, reflects a broader shift in Trump’s orbit away from media figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, who celebrated his efforts to withdraw American forces from conflicts around the world, and toward advisers linked to the wars that defined the Bush years. Trump has infuriated some anti-interventionist allies by increasingly boosting prowar figures like Fox News radio host Mark Levin, whom he defended against criticism from other conservative media figures.
And Thiessen’s rise began well before this year’s attack on Iran (which Thiessen wholeheartedly backed). Last year, Trump invited him to have dinner with their respective wives at the White House. Thiessen has told people at the Post that after one phone call with Trump, the president complimented the attractiveness of Thiessen’s wife.
Thiessen did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Post declined to comment. A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment. A spokesperson for Fox, where Thiessen is a contributor, also declined to comment.
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Since he was first elected to the White House in 2016, Trump’s symbiotic relationship with members of the media, and his desire for their input on actual policy, has been well documented.
As I reported at the Daily Beast, Trump once raised eyebrows at the White House during his first term by consulting then-Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth on various Pentagon-related issues. Trump liked the advice enough to give him the job running the place when he returned to office. The president regularly spoke with Fox’s Sean Hannity, dialed Lou Dobbs into meetings, and counseled with Carlson, then the network’s primetime star, over whether to strike Iran.
But Trump’s rolodex is shifting as he adopts a more interventionist foreign policy approach. The Iran war, in particular, has brought a resurgence of the Fox News hawks like Thiessen, Gen. Jack Keane, and Levin, who have all advocated increasingly for an aggressive stance on Iran and a resumed military campaign.
Levin and Thiessen have staked out a position against the America First wing that has been skeptical of Trump’s Iran policy, including Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and others. Thiessen has described his views in his column through contrast with what he describes as “neo-isolationism,” flattering Trump along the way.
“Turns out President Trump understands his base better than the isolationists and the alt-right,” he wrote in a December piece laying out views on how Trump voters feel about Israel, Taiwan, Russia, and other areas. “A MAGA supermajority supports Trumpian U.S. world leadership. And not surprisingly, Trump understands his movement better than those who want to hijack it to pursue a neo-isolationist agenda.”
The View From The Post
Having a writer on staff with the ear of the president has been seen as a strength for the Post’s revamped opinion page. Since owner Jeff Bezos laid out the opinion section’s new organizing principles last year, the paper has looked to redefine itself as a more centrist, pro-free-market outlet with an often friendlier view of the president.
But even now, some inside the paper have rolled their eyes at Thiessen columns they feel are pandering. Within the office, one Post insider said, some staff would groan that Thiessen’s columns were being written not for readers broadly, but for one reader in particular.
To that point, Thiessen’s writing about Trump’s Ukraine policy attempts to frame ideas as they personally relate to Trump and his family.
Last year, he wrote that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will “regret treating Trump with such contempt” after Putin refused to seriously engage in peace talks with the Ukrainians. He described Russian strikes on Ukraine as an “insult to our first lady” after Trump gave Putin a hand-written letter from Melania Trump pleading for him to make peace to save Ukrainian children. Describing Russian escalation, Thiessen contrasted Trump’s approach with Joe Biden’s, saying, “Unlike Biden, Trump won’t likely fall for [Putin’s] ploy. You don’t beat Trump in a game of escalation dominance.”
He’s flattered the president by saying in recent days that Trump’s blockade of Iran’s blockade was “genius.” He said that victory in Iran is “within the president’s grasp if, like Kipling’s great man, he continues to keep his head while all around him others are losing theirs.” He supports giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, and suggested a Trump-y solution to Ukrainian defense: a border wall between Russia and Ukraine, built with American help.
Max’s view
Trump’s embrace of slightly less-well-known conservative media figures like Thiessen has is a warning sign for his coalition. Some of the most ascendant online stars, who helped boost him among younger right-leaning and independent voters in 2024, have abandoned him. Trump in turn has bashed them, turning to the only people who still support him: a small group of hawks who have largely been ideologically sidelined for years.
But it’s also revealing of another Trump trait: the disproportionate value he places on the legacy outlets that constitute much of his media diet.
People at NBC believe the network has benefited from the importance Trump places on its signature political program, Meet The Press. Trump’s obsession with 60 Minutes has been a liability for CBS’ parent company, but it is rooted in Trump’s belief that the show is a uniquely important media institution.
Thiessen, Levin, and Keane have been featured increasingly since the war began on Fox News, knowing that Trump is likely watching. The president has surely been pleased that a friendly new Post opinion page has written columns so regularly praising his foreign policy acumen, and supporters of Ukraine may also be grateful.
Notable
- The Biden White House found Thiessen to be a useful voice from the right on Ukraine. When he wrote a piece arguing that supplying the Ukrainians with arms was boosting the US manufacturing economy, the Biden team circulated it to promote the message to garner Republican support for funding Ukraine aid, one former White House official recalled.