The admiral navigating the battlefield — and the politics of Trump’s Iran war

Admiral Brad Cooper, promoted to CENTCOM commander in August 2025, now leads the joint US-Israeli war effort against Iran as the conflict widens across the region.

“In the summer of 2024, the threat to maritime shipping in the Red Sea was at its peak”

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In the summer of 2024, Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two ships and killing several crew members after US and UK strikes failed to deter them.

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The day before Donald Trump ordered the operation on February 28, Cooper briefed the president at the White House on military options, and CENTCOM’s campaign has since faced an unclear endgame as Iran retaliates against US assets and Gulf partners.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz roils markets, and thirteen American service members have been killed with another 140 wounded.

Lawmakers are pressing for answers about the strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed 168 children.

Cooper’s task is to shepherd the campaign toward a political decision to end it, whatever that may take.

Sources describe him as highly effective at navigating both battlefield realities and Washington politics.

He is portrayed as a 'people pleaser' who tests ideas in person and maintains close ties with lawmakers and regional partners, in some ways more comfortable in the spotlight than his predecessor Gen. Erik Kurilla.

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His CENTCOM messaging has grown more political, with more references to Trump in press materials and occasional language echoing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, including a call for troops to be 'relentlessly lethal.'

He has engaged in indirect diplomacy, joining Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for talks with Iran in Oman, and inviting them to visit the USS Abraham Lincoln.

He maintains almost daily contact with Israel’s military leadership, and colleagues say he has strengthened interoperability with the Israeli defense establishment as the two militaries coordinate against Iran.

Cooper’s ties to Israel run deep, dating to his time commanding the Fifth Fleet, when cooperation with the Israeli navy reached unprecedented levels.

“In the summer of 2024, the threat to maritime shipping in the Red Sea was at its peak”

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An Israeli official described unprecedented cooperation, noting the placement of American and Israeli liaison officers at key bases and regular meetings that created a regional maritime watch against terrorism.

The same official said Cooper visited Israel so often that many Israeli colonels knew him by name.

He spoke at the funeral of Omer Neutra, Israeli American hostage whose remains were released by Hamas after two years of war in Gaza.

After Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in April 2024, Kurilla and Cooper coordinated on a regional defense network; Cooper continued to build on that groundwork, coordinating with Israel to plan for future scenarios and deepen cooperation.

These discussions set the stage for last month’s joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Cooper’s career arc shows a deep reservoir of Navy leadership and Washington experience.

A 1989 graduate of the US Naval Academy, he studied international relations at Harvard and Tufts and earned a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University.

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His commands included assignments in Japan, South Korea, and Bahrain, and he led the Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

In Washington, he served as an executive and military assistant at the White House, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and head of the Navy’s legislative affairs office, a role that connected him with congressional committees that oversee war funding.

Colleagues describe him as smart, thoughtful, and a straight shooter who can balance battlefield leadership with political optics as CENTCOM engages Iran.

As Kurilla prepared to retire, he lobbied for Cooper to take the job, and Trump respected that recommendation.