William Ruger, a Koch-affiliated foreign policy analyst and an outspoken opponent of military efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, has been named to a key intelligence post in the Trump administration — just before the U.S. engages in high-stakes negotiations with the Islamic Republic over the future of its nuclear program. 

Ruger, who has previously held senior positions at several groups tied to the libertarian Koch network, is now serving as deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, a top job at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that includes duties such as preparing the president’s daily intelligence briefing.

The appointment, which was first reported by Axios on Friday, has not been officially announced by DNI Tulsi Gabbard. But the office’s website lists Ruger as holding the position. 

Most recently, Ruger was the president of the libertarian American Institute for Economic Research, which has staunchly opposed President Donald Trump’s global tariffs. Ruger has also been a longtime critic of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which Ruger has said “promises further conflict” between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, even as he has blamed the effort on misguided advice from the president’s advisors.

“Need to remember that even if both sides are hitting the brakes, the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign is going to continue to create problems” between the U.S. and Iran, Ruger warned in a social media post published in January 2020, shortly after Trump approved the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The president, he said, should “pivot to more serious diplomacy” with Iran.

Ruger also opposed the assassination itself, calling the strike “a dangerous escalation of hostilities in the Middle East” in a statement he released while serving as president of the Charles Koch Institute.   

“President Trump should heed the mistakes of his predecessors and avoid getting sucked into another unnecessary war in the Middle East,” Ruger said at the time. “The escalatory spiral we are now in with Iran risks such an imprudent and costly conflict.”

The U.S., he argued, “should instead find ways to extricate itself from dangerous entanglements in the Middle East in order to focus on priorities more directly connected to national security and prosperity.”

Ruger has likewise voiced skepticism of Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, saying the agreement “was having an impact” in effectively containing the Islamic Republic.

The agreement “wasn’t a perfect deal, but it did slow down the ability of Iran to become a nuclear power,” Ruger said in a 2020 interview. “And then when we got out of it,” he added, “the problem is that it set us on this motion toward greater conflict as opposed to trying to slowly resolve some of these challenges in the relationship that we’ve had going all the way back to the 1950s with Iran.”

Ruger’s elevation to the intelligence role comes as the Trump administration is set to begin renewed nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday, an effort that has faced skepticism from pro-Israel lawmakers and national security experts.

It also comes after Gabbard rescinded her decision to install Daniel Davis, a defense analyst and fierce critic of Israel who assailed U.S. support for the war in Gaza as a moral failure, in the position. The offer was revoked last month after Davis’ views spurred bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill.

For his part, Ruger has expressed more supportive views on Israel and its war against Hamas, which he has called a “justified” response to the terror group’s Oct. 7 attacks.

Even as Ruger has said the U.S. should “reduce” its “footprint in the Middle East,” as he wrote in a 2020 essay, he has also argued that such pullback should come “while still ensuring freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and remaining confident that Israel can defend itself.”   

A spokesperson for the National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.  

Near the end of the first Trump administration, Ruger, an Afghan war veteran, was nominated to serve as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, but was not confirmed by the Senate.

In a February essay about “American restraint,” Ruger expressed optimism that his own foreign policy vision was gaining traction in both politics and government.

“It will be interesting to see how the movement evolves going forward and whether it can stick together to advance positive change,” he wrote, “especially if foreign policy becomes an issue with a partisan divide.”