An admirer, pal and disciple of William F. Buckley, the conservative writer and tv commentator, he held a number of posts in Mr. Bush’s administrat
An admirer, pal and disciple of William F. Buckley, the conservative writer and tv commentator, he held a number of posts in Mr. Bush’s administration, together with as an adviser to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — John R. Bolton, with whom he would later conflict on Iran coverage. He additionally saved instructing at Duke College throughout his tenure, and mentioned that he would proceed in that function.
Mr. Hook joined the Trump administration in early 2017, beneath Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as director of the State Division’s workplace of coverage planning. Mr. Tillerson gave that workplace elevated affect over all of the division’s initiatives, and Mr. Hook grew to become considered one of his closest advisers.
It was Mr. Tillerson who launched him to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. The White Home on the time had, in essence, no international coverage in any respect — only a sequence of Mr. Trump’s pronouncements. Mr. Kushner mentioned in an interview on Wednesday that Mr. Hook “helped us develop an strategy to the world that we at the moment are executing.”
“Brian was the touring companion who may assist information some very fluid conferences with international leaders,” giving updates on Iran to King Salman of Saudi Arabia, amongst others. And it was Mr. Hook who had the thought of getting Twitter posts despatched out from Mr. Trump’s account in Farsi, to deal with the Iranians.
He had his critics contained in the State Division, who noticed him as a political participant. Final November, a State Division inspector common report discovered that in early 2017, Mr. Hook performed a job within the reassignment of a nonpartisan profession official in his workplace after conservatives accused her of sympathy to Mr. Obama and the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Hook denied any political motivation within the reassignment.
His report of diplomatic success was blended. As Mr. Trump threatened to scrap the Iran deal in 2018, Mr. Hook met frequently with Western European officers in an finally futile effort to persuade them — particularly the Germans — to reopen the accord and toughen its phrases. The trouble failed, and Mr. Trump’s determination to exit the accord led to a rift with the European powers, Russia and China on Iran coverage that remained to at the present time.
He was among the many few high division staff to outlive the transition after Mr. Tillerson was ousted and changed with Mike Pompeo, then the C.I.A. director. Mr. Pompeo gave Mr. Hook the Iran file on a full-time foundation, a job he pursued doggedly, together with when he personally emailed the captain of an Iranian tanker carrying oil to Syria in violation of U.S. sanctions, providing him tens of millions of {dollars} if he piloted the ship into the fingers of a U.S. ally. (It didn’t work.)