Foreign policy doesn't necessarily win midterms, but it can still energize the base and shape the president's approval ratings.
Donald Trump and the GOP could use both right now. I'm not a big fan of polls, but a lot of them show the Republicans losing the House in November. I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to settle for that and will take the boosts where I can get them.
So I'd like to propose three foreign policy moves that could give our party something concrete to rally around.
(Side note: Part of this article was inspired by one of my favorite media personalities, Emmanuel Rincón, and something he posted on X yesterday. I already had similar ideas, but I'm also building on what he said — I've learned quite a bit from him over the last year.)
1. Finish Iran and do so victoriously.
I have Iran fatigue. You, our audience who comments on our articles, seem to have Iran fatigue. I think most voters have Iran fatigue. It feels like the never-ending story. Let's stop "making deals" and just go for verifiable, permanent denuclearization, eliminate the threat, and get out of there with an obvious win.
2. Establish an actual path and calendar toward elections in Venezuela.
In January and February, after we plucked a sleeping Nicolás Maduro from his bed and arrested him and placed him in a New York detention center, President Trump was quite a popular man. People who couldn't find Venezuela on a map thought this was a bada** move to just swoop in and take one of the most corrupt men in the world in a matter of hours. More importantly, the Latin American and Hispanic voters in our country saw a glimpse of hope for their family members and friends who live in South America and are impacted by this guy and his crimes against humanity daily.
But Trump's constant praise of Delcy Rodríguez, who is literally just Maduro Lite, has grown tiresome, and the fact that the double earthquakes that happened in late June exposed so much about the regime still in place has made many people wary, both in the United States and in Venezuela. I see it in my comments sections, and I read it in my DMs and emails. While nearly everyone recognizes that we can't just hold elections there tomorrow without making some major institutional changes, most of us are ready to get on with it. Make the changes.
Talks in this direction will begin on August 1, but they're between the regime and 2015 National Assembly figures. They exclude the most popular woman in the room, María Corina Machado, and Edmundo González, the guy who actually won the 2024 elections. That's not sitting right with Venezuelans and many of us here in the United States. Leaving the most legitimate opposition leaders on the sidelines undercuts the entire transition narrative and makes it appear as if they're not taking it seriously.
I firmly believe that if the GOP is going to be successful in the future, it's going to have to court the Hispanic vote, which would be quite easy to do because most people from Latin America share our conservative values. Establishing an actual path toward elections with dates on the calendar — and making it clear that Machado and González will be involved — could go a long way in giving Trump and the GOP another similar boost to what we enjoyed in January.
3. Make a tangible breakthrough in Cuba.
"Cuba's next." How many times over the last six months has the president said that?
I'm afraid we're going to need to see more evidence of that. Trump and Marco Rubio have already put more pressure on the regime than I ever thought possible, and they've created more leverage than any other previous administration, but it's starting to feel like another never-ending story. Cuba's next. More sanctions. Regime balks. MSM rumors run rampant and turn out to be nothing. Repeat.
Converting that into something we can actually see by Halloween would be a huge boost for the GOP. Everyone knows Cuba has been the beacon of communism for many decades. Everyone knows it sits 90 miles from our shores and welcomes our adversaries with the same enthusiasm as a group of church ladies hosting a potluck dinner. Most of us would love to see change there, and it's time for the president to deliver us... something. Even if it's just a sign of the direction in which the country is headed: freed political prisoners, irreversible political or economic concessions (real ones, not phony regime-led ones), etc.
And the thing about all three of these situations is that we wouldn't be starting anything new. All are already underway; we just need to speed things up and be more decisive. I see no reason why the greatest country in the world with some of the strongest leadership we've had in decades can't accomplish all three within the next three months.
