100 Days of Huckabee: A Master Class in Failure

The first 100 days of a U.S. president’s term are scrutinized as the most consequential window of their time in office, pushed by a motivation to set an administration-defining agenda, not yet distracted by midterm elections or the next presidential campaign.

This window has been adopted by cabinet secretaries and ambassadors who, while not beholden to the same time considerations as the president, also take the opportunity to mark what they’ve achieved in the same self-imposed period.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, to this end, used his 100th day in his position to promote his defining accomplishments as Trump’s envoy to Israel.

In a nearly 90-second video posted to X, Huckabee first highlights the “awe-inspiring example of U.S. military might” posed by U.S. strikes on Iran that “obliterated” its nuclear program. Aside from his near-messianic encouragement of Trump as he weighed joining the Israel-Iran war, Huckabee played a minimal role in the entire episode. His focus on an unambiguous military achievement – though not yet factually proven, despite Trump’s insistence – is a shining example of the sycophancy required to serve as a Trump figurehead.

Huckabee then opted to focus on securing the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity in Gaza, despite the fact that the U.S. had to entirely circumvent Israel due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obstinance.

“We continue to advocate for the freedom of every last hostage held in Gaza,” Huckabee added to his victory lap, which he shared as hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets demanding an end to the war, including more proactive measures from Trump to push Netanyahu into a cease-fire.

Finally, Huckabee touted the removal of “burdensome bureaucratic hurdles to enable Christian pilgrims to once again visit the Holy Land without impediment.” While this issue of Israeli visa denials to evangelical Christian groups marked a rare example of Huckabee speaking out against Israeli policy, that he held this up as one of his signature achievements demonstrates the evangelical Christian ambassador’s true focus.

What is most significant, however, about Huckabee’s 100-day video is what he leaves out. No action against Israeli settlers perpetuating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank; no condemnation of Israeli settlement expansion and planned land grabs that would crystallize Israeli annexation of the West Bank and formally preclude any possibility of a two-state solution, despite it being a longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy.

He also made no mention of any crises related to Gaza, despite Israel’s planned takeover of Gaza City, the starvation that has rapidly deteriorated over his tenure, the ongoing disproportionate killing of civilians or the deeply controversial humanitarian aid group created under his purview.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation may, in fact, be his strongest lasting legacy: an aid organization partially run against the best advice of virtually every international humanitarian organization, funded by the U.S. government but armed by private mercenaries and run by evangelical Christians with no humanitarian experience, whose distribution centers have repeatedly served as sites of mass casualty events and could very well serve as a tool used to facilitate population transfer.

Huckabee’s grandstanding underscores how, as a norm-defying diplomat, he has largely acted in the interests of the extremist government in the country where he serves, even when that clashes with the broader interests of the country he is meant to represent.

“The bonds between Israel and the United States have never been stronger,” Huckabee said, concluding his 100-day video. “We’re just getting started. Watch what happens.”