Is Trump a Neocon?

After what we've seen in the last few days, week. I'm not really sure it matters at this point, but I wanted to point out that Trump is not what a lot of people are referring to as a "neocon." Let me explain.

Neoconservatism as defined by wikipedia :

In normal "normie"-ish terms, Neoconservatism refers to a specific set of foreign policy principles revolving around anti-communism, democracy promotion (as long as it's pro-America!), and a sense that America is uniquely positioned (and morally obligated) to spread liberal (pro-American!) democracy around the world, by force of arms and against the wishes of the "beneficiaries" if necessary.

Take a step back for a moment and ask yourself, does that sound like Trump to you? Just to be clear, Hillary Clinton is a neocon. John Bolton is a neocon. Trump is not.

As far as I can tell, Trump's efforts to start a war with Iran are rooted in a toxic mixture of Trump's personal grudge in spiting Obama, Trump's personal insecurity and pathological need to see himself as a tough guy, Trump's incredibly well-documented belief that war with Iran is a great campaign tool in an election year (though this is not very high up in the overall political reasons why),Trump wilfully surrounding himself with advisers (including some neocons) who have been pushing him hard to destroy Iran, Trump's perverse conception of Israel and Saudi as "the good guys," and Iran's stalwart refusal to kowtow to Trump's delicate ego and thin skin.

We've already discussed why US policymakers have been pushing for a war with Iran for decades now, but we can't underestimate the personal agenda of an egotistical narcissist.

Trump doesn't care about democracy, he doesn't care about liberalism, he doesn't care about the plight of the Iranian people. He cares about Trump. And trying to map any coherent foreign policy philosophy onto him aside from abject narcissism and insecurity just doesn't work.

John Bolton, who Trump hired and then fired never really cared about spreading democracy/liberalism either. It was mostly just about crushing enemies. And that's the dirty little lie at the heart of "neoconservatism." The first waves of neocons were perfectly content to murder a million Vietnamese to "save" them.

Sticking it to the communists came first. The whole "liberal democracy" thing is just a crappy veneer pasted over the top.

More recently, Rand Paul said that the president got "bad advice" on his decision to have the Quds commander Qassem Soleimani assassinated at Baghdad International Airport. I really hate this "Rand Paul" argument, that Trump is some how deep down a committed non-interventionist who has unwittingly had his brain poisoned by his "swamp" advisers.

There is no evidence for that. None. Trump is not displaying any behaviour inconsistent with how he has always acted. Trumps decision to surround himself with hawks is his fault, not some random accident that happened.

Whether or not Trump is a neocon or not (I hope you see that he is not at this point) doesn't actually matter at the end of the day. In the some what likely scenario that he's being manipulated by neocons, it still doesn't absolve him of culpability. Especially when so many of them are advisers he personally chose and listens to.