Home > Opinion > Meanwhile

A frightening list of neocons to be removed

Published: 19 Nov. 2024, 20:12

KANG TAE-HWA
The author is a Washington correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

A list of neocons is fast spreading on social media in the United States. It functions like a kill list of people who are not to be included in the Trump administration. At the top of the list are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. On Nov. 9, Trump personally announced that they would be excluded from his cabinet.

The call for excluding neocons from Trump 2.0 reflects the demand that America must stop playing the role of world police. They want the United States to not pay the cost of protecting its allies, including the NATO. They also insist that the ongoing wars in Russia and the Middle East — as well as potential war situations involving China — should be prevented through “negotiations” in advance.

They are particularly wary of hawks against China. They instigate public fear by suggesting conspiracy theories by saying, “If the United States fights a war for Taiwan, tens of millions of Americans will be killed by China’s electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks, which is stronger than America.” They claim that the United States must pursue negotiation to prevent a war as China is a fearful country.

Based on such claims, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser nominee Mike Waltz are also on the list. They are notable hard-liners toward China, who advocate for “peace through strength.”

On Nov. 11, ardent supporters of Trump collectively protested the news of their nominations. In the end, Trump didn’t announce the nominations that day. Instead, he first named Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Waltz as national security advisor. Rubio’s nomination was postponed to Nov. 13, while the public attention was focused on Hegseth.

Mainstream media didn’t expect Hegseth to be named as defense secretary, but he had already emerged as a candidate for the job. A core group of Trump’s supporters defined him as someone who can advise Trump not to go to war with China over Taiwan. The nomination of Hegseth led to controversies over his lack of expertise and sexual harassment allegation, but his nomination was somewhat successful in quelling the resistance from Trump’s hard-core supporters.

Chances are high that Trump, who is swayed by his strong supporters, will resume negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But proper negotiations cannot happen if Trump wants to meet with Kim only to avoid a war out of the fear about his nuclear weapons.

Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly said that he got along with Kim, but didn’t specifically say what kind of negotiations he would have with Kim. That’s not all. The Republican Party in July removed the goal of “denuclearizing North Korea” from its new party platform.