Political views
Frum supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He helped write George W. Bush's famous "Axis of Evil" speech to describe the governments of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Frum is a supporter of Israel. He opposed President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal. In 2009, Frum described his political beliefs as follows:
"I'm a conservative Republican, have been all my adult life. I volunteered for the Reagan campaign in 1980. I've attended every Republican convention since 1988. I was president of the Federalist Society chapter at my law school, worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and wrote speeches for President Bush—not the 'Read My Lips' Bush, the 'Axis of Evil' Bush. I served on the Giuliani campaign in 2008 and voted for John McCain in November. I supported the Iraq War and (although I feel kind of silly about it in retrospect) the impeachment of Bill Clinton. I could go on, but you get the idea."
In 2010, Frum was involved in the formation of the centrist group No Labels as a "founding leader."
In June 2011, following the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York state, Frum's weekly column for CNN was entitled "I was wrong about same-sex marriage." In it he described the evolution of his opinion from being a "strong opponent" 14 years prior; while he had feared that its introduction would cause "the American family [to] become radically more unstable", he now felt that "the case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality. The case has not passed its test." In 2013, Frum was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.
In a 2013 opinion column for CNN, Frum discussed the need for a "Plan B On Guns" because of a lack of votes in Congress for gun control legislation. Frum specifically urged the commissioning of a Surgeon General's report on firearms' health effects on individual ownership (writing that "such a report would surely conclude that a gun in the home greatly elevates risks of suicide, lethal accident, and fatal domestic violence"), and he called for Senate hearings regarding the practices of firearms manufacturers. He compared these to hearings conducted in the 1990s about tobacco companies.
In 2014, Frum accused Edward Snowden of collaboration with Vladimir Putin's television networks.
Frum appeared on stage with Steve Bannon, Trump's former campaign CEO and White House Chief Strategist, in the November 2, 2018 edition of the Munk Debates in Toronto, Ontario, where they debated the future of populism in western politics.
In 2018, he wrote, "The advanced democracies have built the freest, most just, and best societies in human history. Those societies demand many improvements, for sure—incremental, practical reforms, with careful attention to unintended consequences. But not revolution. Not the burn-it-all-down fantasies of the new populists."
Frum is a proponent of immigration reform, arguing that "reducing immigration, and selecting immigrants more carefully" would lead to increased economic benefits and restore "the feeling of belonging to one united nation, responsible for the care and flourishing of all its people".
He expressed support for Israel and its right to self-defense during the Gaza war. In December 2023, Frum said that the Israeli response was "inevitable" and that Palestinian statehood was not the solution.
