Who will be Armenia’s main lobbyist in Trump’s new administration?

Following the results of the US presidential election, Donald Trump won a convincing victory, and he will be sworn in as the president of the United States on January 20, 2025—unless, of course, a new assassination attempt is organized against him. The next important question will be: What will Trump’s new administration be like after all? It is already clear that there will be no such representatives of the Trump administration of the period 2016-2020 as Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

It is obvious, however, that the Armenian public is mainly interested in who will become Armenia’s main lobbyist in Trump’s new administration. It is already known that the president-elect’s team will include former Democratic member of the House of Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, former Democrat Robert Kennedy Jr. and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. Each of these politicians has collaborated with Armenian lobbying organizations in the United States at some point. Moreover, in 2017, Tulsi Gabbard visited Armenia and Artsakh. Gabbard is originally from Hawaii, and in 2016, this state became one of several US states that recognized the independence of Artsakh.

A number of American media outlets report that the Trump administration will heavily lean on Florida. Florida Senator Marco Rubio may become the future Secretary of State, and Rep. Michael Waltz may become the National Security Adviser. The first is a militant anti-communist who comes from a family of Cuban immigrants. The second is an army colonel, a Green Beret, a participant in operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Both are known for their radical anti-Chinese stance. Former Bush administration aide Elise Stefanik will become the US ambassador to the UN. By the way, more than 66 thousand Armenians live in Florida, which makes the state the 6th largest Armenian diaspora population in the United States. In other words, it would not be surprising if the business interests of local Armenians meet the interests of representatives of the “Florida clan” in the Trump administration.

Even the first leaks of information on the staff of the administration indicate that the United States will strike the main “blow” (and perhaps not only economic) at China, which cannot but affect their activity in Europe and the South Caucasus.
Logic and common sense suggest that to confront China (even economically), Washington should concentrate all its geopolitical resources in Southeast Asia. This, in turn, means that in the rest of Eurasia, from where the United States can leave, Washington needs a geopolitical partner who can take over the functions of the main actor of the region. In the case of the South Caucasus, as an integral part of the former USSR, Russia will be such a partner.

The Putin-Trump political agreements will be much broader than the peace in Ukraine. This is evidenced by the recent statement by the Russian foreign intelligence service that the United States is pushing Armenian people to “national suicide”. This was a signal not only to Pashinyan but also, first of all, to Washington. This was a signal that demonstrated that Moscow continues to view Armenia within its strategic borders.

However, answering the question about Armenia’s main lobbyist in the Trump administration, it should be noted that there should be no illusions in this matter: even if an ethnic Armenian became president of the United States, this would not change anything for our country if there are no political changes. Since the very fact of an ethnic Armenian as president of the United States will not automatically cancel the fact that Armenia is under Turkey’s external control.

Think about it…