Max’s best-selling biography of Ronald Reagan, Reagan: His Life and Legend, was released in paperback on October 20. It was selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2024. It has also made best-of-the-year lists at The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Economist, and Air Mail. You can purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore.
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The defense secretary is better at waging culture wars than the Iran war. By MAX BOOT Washington Post
April 3, 2026
In the early morning hours of Feb. 28, President Donald Trump announced the biggest U.S. war in more than two decades. What was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doing the day before? Announcing a settlement with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, to discontinue some diversity initiatives. Hegseth did not succeed in getting the group to kick out girls or revert to its earlier name, but he did convince it to end its “Citizenship in Society” merit badge, earned by scouts who “realize the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical leadership.”
It’s hard to imagine a better symbol of where Hegseth’s priorities lie: He’s more focused on fighting culture wars than actual wars. Hence his decision on Thursday to fire Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, and two other senior Army generals, amid preparations for a possible ground incursion into Iran. Read more in the Washington Post |
John Bolton offers suggestions to "finish the job." But they're unlikely to work.
By MAX BOOT Substack
April 4, 2026
I don’t always agree with John Bolton, but I have a lot of respect for him. He’s been a foreign policy insider for decades, and a consistent advocate of hard-line positions. He was advocating regime change in Iran during the first Trump administration when that position was anathema to Trump and his MAGA toadies. Bolton is still advocating that position today, when it may (or may not be) the official position of the Trump administration.
Along the way he’s had a falling out with Trump, and he wasn’t afraid to criticize Trump even though he knew that the president would try to exact revenge. Sure enough: Trump’s Justice Department has indicted Bolton, but Bolton keeps on speaking his mind, whether Trump likes it or not. Such courage and consistency is rare in Washington; more common are opportunists like JD Vance and Pete Hegseth, who were anti-Trump and antiwar war before they became pro-Trump and pro-war.
So Bolton’s New York Times op-ed, “Finish the Job: How Trump Can Still Win in Iran,” is worth reading because it is likely to be the smartest statement of the hawkish position today. He is right to dismiss Trump’s ludicrous claims that regime change has already been achieved in Iran, and he is right that Trump cannot simply walk away from the war with Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz—and therefore 20 percent of the world’s oil. Yet Bolton also lays out ridiculously ambitious objectives without any realistic means of achieving them.
Read more on Substack |
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