President Donald Trump may have tired of the men he once called 'my generals,' but one retired military leader still has his ear on key foreign policy matters
As President Donald Trump wrestled on the evening of June 20 with how to respond to Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone, Jack Keane was making his second appearance of the day on the Fox News Channel.
Though it is unclear just how decisive Keane’s description of the decades-old incident was in the president’s decision to call off the airstrikes — Trump also had repeated conversations with Fox News host Tucker Carlson before he made the call — it wouldn’t be the first time the 76-year-old former Army vice chief of staff has, wittingly or not, served as a shadow foreign policy adviser to the commander in chief.By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO.
Currently the chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of War, Keane has served as an adviser for several other high-profile political figures, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and he is in frequent contact with Foggy Bottom’s current leader, Mike Pompeo. Though the Trump administration was initially stacked with senior military officials, the president has either shooed out or alienated many of them, including Mattis; former White House chief of staff John Kelly, a former head of Southern Command; and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, a lieutenant general known as one of the Army’s top intellects. But he has continued to rely intermittently on Keane’s counsel.
The gruff, straight-shooting Keane has not hesitated to tell the president when he thinks he’s wrong. He has criticized him for canceling troop exercises in South Korea and wasn’t shy about expressing his disappointment with the Trump administration’s second bombing of Syria in April 2018, which he derided in an interview with Fox News as “very weak.”
Keane also aired his disagreement on TV, calling the move a “serious strategic mistake” that would have “dire consequences” and telling Fox Business Network anchor Trish Regan, “I think it’s a decision the president will come to regret, to be frank about it.”
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