With another $5.9B of taxpayer dollars given to Ukraine for the purpose of inflicting carnage on a world superpower, the probability of nuclear war just got a tick higher. The aid undoubtedly means the prospect of a ceasefire will dwindle but peace is still on the horizon.
The return of President Donald Trump to the Oval Office and world stage signals more than just a return to the normalcy of a President actually in command of his own foreign policy vision. It signifies a return of the war between American populists who preach “no more foreign wars” and legacy servants of the foreign policy “blob” who think they’ve earned the ability to guide American interests abroad.
Disciples from each faction clashed often during President Trump’s first term and many acolytes of the blob like John Bolton enjoyed a direct ear to the Commander-in-Chief. Underscoring the tension was the resignation of another blob acolyte, Trump’s Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who quit because he disagreed with withdrawing troops from Syria.
When examining President Trump’s second Administration it’s obvious that the warhawks and neocons have been shut out from influencing policy from high-ranking perches. Leaving both Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo out of the cabinet was the first indication but nothing exemplifies Team Trump’s pivot away from blob influence more than the selection of incoming NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker. He’s a newcomer to the international arena, but that’s exactly why he’s in a prime position to defeat the blob en route to helping America avert a broader confrontation with Russia.
What is “the Blob?”
Defining the blob isn’t easy because it’s just as structureless and amorphous as it sounds. But through identifying who the blob is, it becomes clearer how the Ukraine-Russia conflict determines the direction of its power and credibility.
The blob is a wide spectrum of professionals from academics, think-tank researchers, and legacy media figures on one end, and agency bureaucrats, career emissaries, and military-industrial complex figureheads on the other. Both Democrats and Republicans belong to it, as long as they stand in support of more spending, more militarism abroad, and more influence for figures in the dynasty diplomatic network.
With the tragedy of a terrorist attack on American soil in New Orleans still fresh, it’s hard to dismiss other flashpoints for violence around the world, which are equally as important. Especially since many of President Trump’s advisers will spend their time competing with the will of the foreign policy establishment to achieve peace but none underscore the prominence of the blob more than the situation in Ukraine which makes Whitaker’s role at NATO crucial. Ukraine created a moment for these dynasty figures and they pounced.
The world was set on fire when Putin finally formally recognized two pro-Russian regions of Ukraine increasing tensions with Kiev resulting in Russian boots on the ground. From that point forward, news of a Russian invasion dominated the news cycle, and journalists, celebrities, and politicians alike adopted Ukrainian colors like a trendy sports team (with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as mascot).
There’s something wrong with that per se; after all, Putin is a well-known villain. But this was the opening foreign policy elites needed.
Public consensus is required for the blob to operationalize its hawkish wishes but the blob had more than just consensus, they had an empty vessel in Biden in control of U.S. diplomatic engagements.
With non-interventionists and prudent but cautious “America First” operators well out of sight in D.C., the Cold War mentality returned.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stood near Russia in neighboring Poland alongside Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and declared America was intent on seeing the Kremlin “weakened” by its conflict with its other neighbor Ukraine. Suddenly think tanks like the Center for Strategic International Studies and the Brookings Institution became relevant again. The latter routinely hosted roundtables promoting the war as a “transformational moment.”
Make no mistake, the blob’s hawkish ideas are predictable and will lead to further war. If you think the notion that America must rid foreign nations of despotic tyrants died out during the Iraq war you’re sorely mistaken. Look no further than a recent Op-Ed from Senator Mitch McConnell in Foreign Affairs as proof of that. In that piece, he disparages the America First Doctrine as a “retreat” from the world stage. He spent much of the article railing against “isolationist conservatives” who believe in the concept of America as a “fortress.” But if you think McConnell himself typed or even dictated those words you’re, again, sorely mistaken. McConnell’s article in Foreign Affairs is just another mirage from the blob meant to affirm their own beliefs.
The blob sees many problems in the world but they have few rational solutions that also don’t stir up more problems.
They want more provocations throughout the globe including in Ukraine because conflict is impulsive to the blob. Every escalating action or statement from high-ranking politicians or diplomats serves as a way to test the waters of consensus for further escalations.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said NATO was being “too polite” to Russia back in the summer.
But politeness wasn’t a concern a few weeks ago after a Russian General was killed in an explosive attack in Moscow. The brutality of the killing brought back memories of another unconventional Ukrainian assassination, the car bombing that killed the daughter of a Putin policy advisor. The attacks have drawn criticism from President Trump’s selection for Envoy to Ukraine Retired General Keith Kellogg who called the actions “contrary to the rules of warfare,” but Whitaker himself has yet to weigh in. The new U.S. Ambassador to NATO surely wouldn’t condone such actions and that’s what makes him so critical. Those brutal killings wouldn’t have happened under Whitaker’s tenure.
Whitaker can tackle the Blob
The blob doesn’t lash out against proponents of the America First doctrine because they don’t see the rationality of their argument, they lash out because populist thinking severely limits their power.
Tasking an outsider like Whitaker with the vital responsibility of imposing America’s upcoming policy shift on NATO relations was the first step in ending the blob’s persistent influence over the Eastern Bloc conflict.
The blob demands that everyone behave as irrationally as them, but Whitaker won’t.
Whitaker didn’t spend decades of his career on the foreign policy circuit being conditioned to think that lack of impulse control was some type of Western diplomatic morality.
Everyone in Whitaker’s orbit says he’s a likable guy. He has a classic prosecutor’s mentality and he was one of the top scholars at his Alma Mater the University of Iowa where he played football. He started law school during his final season, no easy task considering that this was before athletes had endless academic resources. He’s risen to the top not because he’s an academic blue-blood but because his likability pairs nicely with a sharp assertive demeanor.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blasted Whitaker as inexperienced for the role on account of his lack of military, diplomatic, and foreign business ties but that’s exactly why he’s the right man for the job. He’s a skillful lawyer who’s uncompromised and a person proven capable of facilitating a result.
Matthew Whitaker can help President Trump re-order NATO starting by first by turning down the temperature and second by hounding both parties toward peace. America is who moves the chess pieces on NATO’s board. The fact that the U.S. is by and large the most significant financier of NATO affairs accounting for 68 percent of all spending in 2023 certainly has something to do with that.
When former NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith spoke to a blob infestation known as the Defense Writers Group back in June, she dismissed Americans who questioned the need to pump billions into NATO and Ukraine to counterbalance Russia as “18-to-25-year-olds” who don’t understand the value of the 75-year alliance. Not only is Matthew Whitaker 55 years old, but so is Global Risk Researcher Ian Bremmer, who cautioned that Putin remains in a stronger position in its “battle of the wills” against the West and nothing absent from WW3 can prevent parts of Ukraine from being “partitioned” off to Russia. The blob seems intent on bringing us to WW3, but first, they’re headed on a collision course toward a stiff former blocking Tight End named Matthew George Whitaker.
Guest commentator R.C. Maxwell is a writer, political consultant, and Turning Point Action Manager who also serves as Communications Director of the O’Keefe Media Group.
