The National Security team under a Donald Trump presidency is starting to take shape, and there’s one common theme: a lot of anti-Muslim people are on the list.
Trump’s transition team has reportedly struggled to fill these roles, after a vast array of foreign policy experts signed a letter denouncing Trump last March.
“Everybody who has signed a never-Trump letter or indicated an anti-Trump attitude is not going to get a job,” Paul Rosenzweig, a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security under the George W. Bush administration, told the Daily Beast. “And that’s most of the Republican foreign policy, national security, intelligence, homeland security, and Department of Justice experience.”
It may be that the people left over are those who wholeheartedly support policies Trump proposed during the primaries and general election. Among the names touted for senior positions in the next administration’s national security team are noted anti-Muslim figures, deeply rehearsed in fringe right-wing conspiracies.
Here are some of the people being considered:
Michael Flynn
There’s a lot to be said about retired three-star General Michael Flynn. He’s a cybersecurity hawk, thinks fear of Muslims is rational and said Islam is “a cancer” that “hides behind…religion”, and his office sent out sexist dress code provisions to staffers. Last week, Trump named him to be his National Security Adviser.
Flynn, 57, is a registered Democrat, according to the New York Times, but he’s been an outlandish supporter of Trump for some time. He spoke at the Republican National Convention and lead chants of “lock her up” directed against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today,” Flynn said at the convention last summer.
Oddly enough, Flynn has been accused of mishandling classified information. He also recently was paid by a Russian television station to attend a gala and sit next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has been criticized for his lobbying ties to Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
Flynn played a prominent role in “unraveling militant networks” in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the New York Times, but his management style left much to be desired. He was fired by President Obama in 2014 when he was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, with many saying his attempts at an agency overhaul led to internal chaos.
While he has certainly espoused some fringe right-wing conspiracy theories since leaving his post, he also made similar statements while leading the DIA.
“His dubious assertions are so common that when he ran the Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates came up with a name for the phenomenon: They called them ‘Flynn facts’,” the Times reported.
He has a penchant for believing made up right-wing news that affirms his world view, according to Vox, and regular repeats such false news from his Twitter account.
At least two retired military officers told Vox they saw Flynn as “unhinged.” Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was in charge of operations in Afghanistan during Flynn’s tenure running intelligence operations there, asked Flynn to tone down his rhetoric.
Clare Lopez
Lopez has been pipped for the Deputy National Security Adviser role. A 20 year veteran of the CIA, Lopez currently holds a position as vice president at the Center for Security Policy — an anti-Muslim organization known for its conspiracy theories, founded and led by Frank Gaffney, a noted anti-Muslim crusader.
Lopez herself is a noted anti-Muslim advocate and right wing conspiracy theorist. She has accused Huma Abedin, a Muslim and close Clinton aide, of being a Muslim Brotherhood supporter and accused Obama of providing military aid to Al-Qaeda in 2014. She also praised Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s persecution of alleged Communists as “spot-on” and wants to do the same with Muslims in the United States today.
Walid Phares
A Trump adviser who is alleged to have been a member of a right-wing Christian-nationalist militia during the Lebanese Civil War, Phares is another noted anti-Muslim advocate and is thought to be in consideration for the role of deputy security adviser, according to the Independent.
Phares also has ties to Etienne Sakr, a former leader of a Christian supremacist militia whose crimes were so obscene he was sentenced to death in absentia and remains in exile in Cyprus. This is in a country where the rest of the war time leaders accused of war crimes are still in power.
Phares was a Romney adviser in 2011 and was scheduled to testify at a hearing on radical Islam, organized by Islamophobic Rep. Peter King (R-NY), but was dropped from the list after his militia ties became public knowledge. He’s been a key player in pushing anti-Muslim sentiment into mainstream Republican circles through his association with noted anti-Muslim activists like Frank Gaffney and Brigitte Gabriel. When Romney selected Phares as an aide, he was widely criticized by Muslim groups and academics.
“I’m more confused than anything else, given what I know about the types of initiatives Phares has been involved in,” Andrew Exum then of the Center for a New American Security and now the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy told the New Republic in 2011. “When you have a lot of credible scholars and practitioners within the Republican Party, why would you select as co-chair of your policy committee someone who is widely viewed as an extremist?”
It’s an interesting development that Phares was criticized as a fringe appointment by Romney in 2011, yet in the forming Trump NSA team, Phares’ views are mainstream among potential appointees.
Andy Keiser
A former chief of staff at the House Intelligence Committee and a senior aide to former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who chaired the House Intelligence Committee until retiring last year, Keiser is another name being tipped for deputy security adviser.
Keiser is currently the President of the Americans for Peace Prosperity and Security, a group with ties to the military contracting industry and hawkish foreign policy views, according to the Intercept.