The Trump Doctrine: How “America First” Kept Our Nation Safe and Secure and Earned the World’s Respect
Donald’s Trump’s four years in office were remarkable for the prosperity they brought to the lives of Americans from all walks of life. But equally remarkable was our 45th president’s record on foreign policy. No president in modern times – not even Ronald Reagan – has managed to combine peace and prosperity into a single comprehensive governing approach that kept Americans feeling safe and secure and optimistic about the country’s future.
When was the last time an American president decided to keep our troops at home and to resist the temptation to go to war? Barack Obama escalated U.S. intervention in Afghanistan at the tremendous cost in blood and treasure. George W. Bush, sunk us into a quagmire in Iraq, at even greater cost. Bill Clinton authorized a disastrously suicidal US rescue mission in Somalia while his intervention in Haiti toppled dictator but embroiled America in a fruitless nation-building effort. Ronald Reagan fought proxy wars across the globe, invaded Grenada and saw 250 sitting-duck Marines in Lebanon killed in a bomb blast.
Presidents for decades have wasted billions of dollars in taxpayer money on foreign crusades that have rarely brought more peace and stability. Joe Biden’s massive intervention in the Ukraine continues this self-defeating pattern. But Trump broke the cycle. One of his first acts in office was to cancel the CIA’s massive planned paramilitary warfare campaign in Syria – the largest “covert action” in American history – earning the enmity of the entire Deep State, which never forgave him. He also began the process of troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, ending two wasteful boondoggles that had soiled America’s reputation abroad.
Trump’s track record didn’t stop there. He began negotiations with North Korea to denuclearize the entire Korean peninsula. He brokered the Abraham Accords to de-escalate conflict between Israel and its long-time Arab antagonists in the Middle East – for which he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. He also spent months negotiating the overhaul of the outmoded NAFTA treaty with Canada and Mexico.
In almost all of these cases, Trump’s liberal critics said “it couldn’t be done.” Not by Trump – and indeed not by anyone. They warned that his negotiations with Korea might lead to war. They didn’t. They said the Abraham Accords wouldn’t come to fruition. They did. They said replacing the NAFTA treaty was impossible. Trump, through his gifted leadership, made all of these impossible things come true.
How did he do it? In large part through the Trump Doctrine: “America First.” Pilloried at the time as a “xenophobic” throwback to an earlier era of American global dominance, Trump’s doctrine was just the opposite. He put the world on notice that America was no longer a global policeman intervening abroad to try to topple and build up governments for the purpose of imposing a Pax Americana. Henceforth, American policies would be founded on our nation’s own economic and security interests, not on dreams of global hegemony. In four short years, the Trump Doctrine proved remarkably successful in redrawing our nation’s relationships with the rest of the world — and it kept America at peace.
Another example was Trump’s demand that our NATO allies in Europe pay their “fair share” for the defense of the Western world against threats from our enemies. Liberals screamed that Trump was destroying the Western alliance undermining global cooperation on a range of issues of concern to America and her traditional allies. Far from it. After initial resistance, our allies agreed to pay more and NATO survived – only now with greater respect for America and her own interests.
Make no mistake: Trump was no “peacenik,” blaming American warmongering for all of the world’ problems. When the situation demanded it, Trump stepped up and made clear to our adversaries, especially Islamic terrorists. that America would respond with decisive force to repel them.
The most notable example was Trump’s decision to bomb the ISIS Caliphate, eliminating the movement’s territorial base and crippling the group militarily once and for all. Trump boldly authorized the dropping of MOAB, the “Mother of All Bombs,” and in a flash, ISIS, which had bedeviled America and the rest of the world for more than a decade, was all but eliminated.
And then there was China. Trump, virtually alone in the American policy establishment, insisted that Beijing needed to be confronted, not just economically but also militarily. When China rattled its sabers, Trump rattled back. He warned the Chinese not to encroach on Taiwan or to try to seize the strategically positioned islands in the South China Sea. And Beijing knew Trump meant business.
Trump, with his extraordinary business acumen, was also a tough and effective trade negotiator. His success in replacing NAFTA with a more favorable North American trade deal is already well-known. But Trump also stood up to China and secured huge trade benefits for U.S. farmers. He forced China to yield billions in farm support. China, unsure of how far it could push Trump, wisely decided to concede . The entire American heartland has gained as a result.
Part of Trump’s extraordinary success with China was his adroit of the larger superpower conflict with China and Russia. Trump appeared to warm to Vladimir Putin, but only to offset China’s efforts to woo Russia into an anti-American alliance. Democrats howled about Trump’s “collusion” with Russia, seemingly oblivious to the larger strategic stakes involved. Trump ended up playing both countries against each other, and kept Russia out of the Ukraine while slowing Chinese expansionism virtually everywhere.
Trump’s handling of global affairs didn’t go unnoticed, even by the traditional foreign policy establishment. Ina little noticed policy paper published by the highly influential Council on Foreign Relations, the author, no friend of conservatives or Trump, pushed back against criticism of the president, saying Trump had done a “surprisingly effective” job as Commander in Chief. The paper went on to list his accomplishments and suggested that a “reassessment” of Trump and his legacy might be needed.
Sadly, the consequences of Trump no longer in power to provide America with his bold and decisive leadership are plain to see. Biden has repudiated the Trump Doctrine and returned to the discredited “globalist” policies of the past that have brought America ruin. Beginning with his unconscionable and humiliating withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, Biden has projected weakness abroad, inviting our adversaries to pounce. The first to do so was Russia, which completely ignored Biden’s warnings and moved to invade and occupy Ukraine, bogging our nation and the rest of the world down into a quagmire from which there is now no easy exit.
Biden has also mortgaged our oil reserves to the Sheiks in Saudi Arabia, completely undermining our nation’s economic security. Before Biden took over, America was moving toward genuine energy independence. Now we’re back begging for resources from some of the world’s leading authoritarian regimes and human rights violators. Under Trump, these same nations respected and even feared us. Now they’re only laughing.
And then there’s China, which is back on the move, siding with Russia in the Ukraine and making fresh plans with Putin to try to narrow American diplomatic influence across the globe. Illegal immigration, meanwhile, is raging out of control, erasing the US-Mexico border and leaving the entire southwest at the mercy of drug lords and terrorists.
Will “America First” persevere? The answer is yes. Americans are seeing the deadly and destructive consequences that result when America fails to stand up for herself. Biden’s favorability ratings with the American public on issues ranging from immigration to the Ukraine are abysmal. These numbers are even worse than his ratings on the economy. Trump is calling the nation back to its proud ideals and to the need for strong global leadership. He is rightly warning of a possible World War III – or worse, nuclear war – unless the Trump doctrine is reinstated. Will voters once again heed the call?
