George W. Bush had the hawkish Charles Krauthammer to explain his hawkish presidency to the public and advise him in private. Barack Obama liked talking to The New Yorker’s David Remnick. And Donald Trump has increasingly, improbably turned to a former Bush speechwriter best known for defending the least popular elements of Bush’s foreign policy, the Iraq War and CIA torture: The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen.

And Thiessen may deserve credit for one of the surprises of Trump’s second term: his continued, if measured, support for Ukraine in the face of hostility inside his party and his administration.

“He is doing more to help Ukraine than Biden ever did,” Thiessen declared in a piece ranking the best decisions of the first year of the second Trump presidency.

Post opinion editor Adam O’Neal has told journalists that Thiessen’s calls with Trump regarding Ukraine were influential in persuading Trump to continue to take the country’s side in the conflict in the face of some Republicans pushing for a quick settlement with Russia, people familiar with the Post’s internal conversations said. Thiessen similarly told colleagues at the Post that he believed his columns were shaping Trump’s thinking on the war in Ukraine.

In tweets and on television, he has teased that his well-placed sources have led him to believe that Trump has never been more determined to see the US’ military campaign against Iran through to completion.

The rise of Thiessen, 59, reflects a broader shift in Trump’s orbit away from media figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, who celebrated his efforts to withdraw American forces from conflicts around the world, and toward advisers linked to the wars that defined the Bush years. Trump has infuriated some anti-interventionist allies by increasingly boosting prowar figures like Fox News radio host Mark Levin, whom he defended against criticism from other conservative media figures.

And Thiessen’s rise began well before this year’s attack on Iran (which Thiessen wholeheartedly backed). Last year, Trump invited him to have dinner with their respective wives at the White House. Thiessen has told people at the Post that after one phone call with Trump, the president complimented the attractiveness of Thiessen’s wife.

Thiessen did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Post declined to comment. A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment. A spokesperson for Fox, where Thiessen is a contributor, also declined to comment.