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Who’s Afraid of Brett McGurk?

Everyone in Washington has an opinion of McGurk, the controversial Blob star, president whisperer, and veteran foreign policy player. But is he a cunning opportunist or simply the best diplomat in a town filled with them?

Brett McGurk
Because Brett McGurk has spent two decades helping set American Middle East policy, almost everyone in the Blob can point to something they hate him for. Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
February 7, 2024

Everyone in Washington, it seems, loves to hate on Brett McGurk. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who likes him,” one former senior State Department official said of the seemingly indestructible D.C. lifer who is currently President Biden’s Middle East coordinator on the National Security Council. “Literally, at the end of my book club the other night, this came up. Every administration, he gets promoted one level up and no one understands why. How did he get here? Everyone in town has the same question, and no one has a good answer for it.”