A good Senate majority leader is hard to find.

Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson are right to oppose Senate majority leadership aspirants Sens. John Cornyn (Tex.) and John Thune (S.D) because of their incompatibility with the Trump-Vance foreign policy. They are, however, mistaken in rushing to endorse Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) for the top Senate job.

Scott’s top aide who advises him regarding everything having to do with foreign policy has a national security outlook indistinguishable from Liz Cheney’s. This is the senator’s war happy advisor Paul Bonicelli, who joined Scott’s staff upon his election in 2018.

Bonicelli is one of many obscure Evangelical Christians dragged out of the Bible Belt and plopped into foreign affairs posts during George W. Bush’s administration by Elliott Abrams. Abrams indoctrinated his naïve recruits with self-righteous neocon talking points that conflated the teachings of Christ with the pre-emptive war and nation-building catechism of the First Unreformed Church of Richard B. Cheney.

Abrams installed Bonicelli in a Dubya administration Senate-confirmed position overseeing the U.S. Agency for International Development’s hapless “democracy” and nation-building efforts. Bonicelli repaid the favor with sycophantic writings about his mentor.

During President Trump’s first term, Bonicelli was outspoken in favor of the infamous policy coup orchestrated by Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and others to push Trump into sending more troops senselessly into the Afghan quagmire.

This was one of the key events Sen. J. D. Vance mentioned in his combative pre-election interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

VANCE: “All of these people, Jake, came into office thinking that they could control Donald Trump. That when he said he wanted peace in the world …”

TAPPER: “Mike Pence thought he could control Donald Trump?”

VANCE: “Yes, he did.”

In 2018, Bonicelli parroted all of the deep state talking points as he wrote an article sharply criticizing President Trump’s conduct of his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It will be very hard,” wrote Bonicelli in his best David Frum impersonation, “for President Trump to undo the damage.”

Later, when Trump made the mistake of hiring John Bolton as national security advisor, Bonicelli was ecstatic.

“President Trump has appointed John Bolton to be his next national security advisor,” Bonicelli exulted, “and it is hard to imagine a better choice, certainly at this juncture of Trump’s presidency.”

Bonicelli continued: “The national security team Trump is filling out represents some impressive figures. Bolton joins Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and James Mattis, who share knowledge, experience, confidence, integrity, and boldness.”

If you can stomach it, read Bonicelli’s entire paean to Bolton.

Could Rick Scott and Paul Bonicelli ever demonstrate they’re trustworthy allies of the Trump-Vance foreign policy? Getting knocked off a horse on the road to Damascus would be a start but would not be nearly enough.

Donning sackcloth and walking barefoot in the snow from Capitol Hill to Canossa wouldn’t hurt, but does anyone believe that would be sufficient?

The safest course for an America First, Peace Through Strength foreign policy would be to keep Scott and Bonicelli away from the leader’s office and to look for a leader not named Scott, Cornyn, or Thune who will support the new president and his mandate.