What is FDD? The pro-Israel think tank shaping Trump’s Iran policy

Last week, the White House’s official rapid-response account on social media platform X posted a graphic from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a pro-Israel think tank, with the false claim that Tehran’s uranium enrichment had accelerated due to sanctions relief under former U.S. President Joe Biden.

In reality, Iran’s uranium enrichment was capped at 3.67% under the 2015 nuclear deal, far below the 90% needed to build a weapon. Tehran only ramped up enrichment after President Donald Trump withdrew from that historic agreement in 2018.

The incident illustrates how FDD’s talking points on the U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran are being absorbed by the Trump administration. The organization, which fiercely opposed the 2015 nuclear deal, has carved out a carefully cultivated position in Washington’s corridors of power.

FDD experts appear on major U.S. news channels, often introduced as nonpartisan analysts. Their reports circulate through Congress and the White House. The group’s website claims it accepts no funding from foreign governments. But behind that image lies a network of former Israeli military and intelligence officials who have spent years pushing the U.S. to confront Iran.

Now, a former senior official of FDD Action, the group’s lobbying arm, has joined Trump’s Iran negotiating team. On Saturday (U.S. time), Trump appointed Nick Stewart to the Office of the Special Envoy for Peaceful Missions, placing him on the negotiating team with Iran alongside envoy Steve Witkoff.

Stewart is not a career diplomat. He was executive director of advocacy at FDD Action, where he publicly advocated for a tougher stance on Iran, including military pressure. He also worked at the State Department during the first Trump administration.

Federal lobbying records show FDD Action spent $150,000 lobbying the U.S. government in the first quarter of 2025 on issues including Iran sanctions legislation, U.S. arms sales to Israel, and the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025.

According to the group’s website, FDD Action provides lawmakers and officials with “direct support including legislative drafting assistance, briefings, policy analysis and training—all at no cost.” “Our goal is simple,” the organization states, “to ensure that those responsible for America’s national security have the expertise and tools they need to succeed.”

The appointment of a senior figure who worked for a lobbying group advocating a hardline position on Iran has raised questions about Washington’s ability to pursue independent negotiations, especially as pro-Israel lobbying networks gain growing influence inside Trump’s foreign policy establishment.

What is FDD?

FDD’s roots date back to 2001. According to the Carnegie Endowment, three major pro-Israel donors founded an organization called EMET—Hebrew for “truth”—immediately after the start of the Second Palestinian Intifada, a uprising against Israeli occupation.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., EMET renamed itself FDD, and over the next two decades, Iran became the focus of its work.

During congressional hearings on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz pushed for expanded sanctions targeting entities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stricter enforcement, and limits on sanctions relief.

Around the same period, the Carnegie Endowment described FDD as providing the “intellectual firepower” behind pro-Israel lobbying efforts in Washington. While the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had “access to financial backers,” Carnegie wrote in 2011, FDD provided “sophisticated talking points” delivered by “credible experts” through “congressional hearings, op-ed pages, television, and radio.”

Over time, FDD helped shape how Israeli security positions penetrated mainstream U.S. politics.

Trump’s first term and Iran policy

During Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, many positions long advocated by FDD were reflected in U.S. policy, especially after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and launched a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Tehran.

FDD later confirmed that senior adviser Richard Goldberg, while serving on Trump’s National Security Council, helped coordinate key elements of the “maximum pressure” campaign—a comprehensive strategy of sanctions and economic isolation aimed at weakening the Iranian government.

Questions around FDD’s relationship with Israel intensified after media reports about Israeli lobbying activity in the U.S. FDD has denied allegations that it acts on behalf of any foreign government. Al Jazeera contacted FDD for comment but received no response.

However, the organization’s Israel program outlines positions that closely mirror the Israeli government’s regional worldview. “Israel is America’s most valuable, most reliable, and most vulnerable ally in the Middle East,” the program states. It also describes Qatar and Turkey as “states affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood” promoting “an anti-Israel agenda.”

Former Israeli security officials at FDD

Inside FDD’s research arm is a dense network of former Israeli military and intelligence officials, many of whom have spent years advocating for tough sanctions on Iran, closer U.S.-Israel strategic ties, and military confrontation with Tehran.

Jacob Nagel, a senior fellow at FDD, served decades in the Israeli military and is a former Israeli national security adviser. Eyal Hulata, another senior international fellow, also served as Israel’s national security adviser and national coordinator for Iran strategy.

Other fellows include Jonathan Conricus, a former international spokesman for the Israeli military, and Tal Kelman, a retired Israeli major general who headed strategic planning for the Israeli air force. The presence of so many senior former Israeli security officials within an organization that presents itself as an independent U.S. think tank has increased scrutiny of FDD’s claims of political neutrality.

Influence under Trump

FDD’s ties to Trump’s foreign policy establishment extend well beyond Stewart. Retired Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, Trump’s former national security adviser, now chairs FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power. Matt Pottinger, a former deputy national security adviser to Trump, is also affiliated with the organization.

Goldberg, one of FDD’s most prominent figures, previously served on Trump’s National Security Council. Speaking recently on a podcast, FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz described confronting Iran as a personal mission. “If you know me, you know I live and breathe a single mission: preventing a nuclear Iran and ending the Islamic Republic,” he said.

Dubowitz added that Iranian officials accuse the think tank of being “the design and execution arm of the U.S. administration on Iran policy.” “Guilty,” he replied. These comments reflect the increasingly blurred lines between lobbying, policymaking, and research that have shaped FDD’s rise in Washington.

Scrutiny of these overlaps has grown as negotiations between Washington and Tehran stall. On Wednesday (U.S. time), Trump said negotiations were progressing, raising hopes for an end to the war and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s closure of the waterway had triggered a global energy crisis.

In 2019, Iran sanctioned FDD and Dubowitz, accusing the organization of helping conduct “economic terrorism” through sanctions targeting Tehran.

Stewart, who left FDD to join Trump’s Iran negotiating team, has publicly dismissed the idea that Iranian leaders can negotiate in good faith. Speaking at a Washington, D.C., seminar hosted by the Vandenberg Coalition in October 2024, Stewart said “it is important that we discard the notion” that figures in the Iranian government could be “honest brokers.”

Weeks before the Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on Iran began on February 28, Stewart argued publicly that Washington should capitalize on what he described as tactical victories over Tehran. “For too long, U.S. presidents have drawn red lines only to watch adversaries cross them without consequence,” Stewart wrote in January.

“The Trump administration has won one tactical victory after another against Iran: killing [Iranian General Quds Force commander] Qasem Soleimani in 2020, imposing severe sanctions on the regime, degrading its terrorist proxy network, and striking at the heart of its nuclear infrastructure,” but without follow-up, these victories risk being forgotten.