In his second term, US President Donald Trump, while breaking constitutional and legal constraints at home, has added a new dimension to his foreign policy – seeking to secure personal prestige, his legacy, a Nobel Peace Prize and a place among the world’s most powerful leaders. At times, it feels as if “America First” has become “Trump First.”
Donald Trump has been on a roll in many global affairs for a president who was supposed to put America first. Trump on Tuesday threatened to disarm Hamas if it didn’t give up its weapons in Gaza, raised speculation about a U.S. military role and boasted about the disappearance of another speedboat near Venezuela in his legally dubious war on drug cartels. Amid a U.S. government shutdown that he said forced him to lay off hundreds of federal workers due to a lack of funding, he offered a $20 billion economic bailout for Argentina, but only if voters there support his scandal-hit populist friend, President Javier Miel.
Trump also spoke publicly about Ukraine’s desire for him to send long-range Tomahawk missiles that could strike deep inside Russia. That could risk a direct U.S. confrontation with Moscow. But the threat could repair his shattered prestige, as President Vladimir Putin has “mockerized” his peace efforts.
Trump’s newfound zeal for global entanglements may surprise MAGA voters, who thought the president was meant to be exclusively domestic. And world leaders, who usually take a back seat when challenging the press alongside Trump, often seem bewildered by his ramblings. On Tuesday, for example, Trump offered Milley one of his classic tropes. In a chaotic stream of consciousness, he blasted Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren as “evil and horrible” and lambasted New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as “communist.” He mocked former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen (a mechanical device that automatically reproduces a person’s signature). He mocked former Vice President Kamala Harris, chided Spain for its low defense spending, and hyped up the World Cup and the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics.
Days earlier, Trump, the statesman, had been the center of the world’s attention after brokering a stunning ceasefire and hostage-return deal between Israel and Hamas. But amid this torrent of inconsistencies, a coherent worldview emerged as Trump spoke about the Middle East, Venezuela, the Western Hemisphere, and Ukraine, albeit in ways that clashed sharply with traditional U.S. foreign policy, MAGA expectations, and sometimes even U.S. law.
TRUMP IS NOT AN ISOLATIONIST
One of the problems with Trump’s use of the phrase “America First” is that it evokes confusing associations with the far-right committee of the 1930s that opposed the United States’ entry into World War II and the fight against Nazism.
But it would be more accurate to describe Trump as an opponent of internationalism than a prophet of isolationism. He increasingly relishes the exercise of American power on the global stage. His allergy to ground wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, did not stop him from launching punitive airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites that made him look tough. Trump often borrows from various strands of Republican national security ideology present within his administration. Sometimes he sides with hawks like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. At other times, he engages with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In his tariff wars, he is siding with anti-globalists like Peter Navarro. But his advance in the Middle East reflected the legacy of an ultra-traditionalist Republican, President George H.W. Bush.
The erratic Trump is impossible to pin down ideologically. And his arrogant personality means his foreign policy is often no more complex than a wild desire to wield his power over whoever sits across from him.
“Our plan will put America first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be sure that other nations will not treat America with respect,” Trump said in his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He outlined his views in his first address to the UN General Assembly a year later, pledging that the US would use the power of the nation-state rather than working through international institutions and traditional alliance structures.
“As president of the United States, I will always put America first, just as you, as leaders of your countries, will always and should always put your countries first,” he said.
In his second term, while breaking constitutional and legal constraints at home, he has added a new dimension to his foreign policy – seeking to secure personal prestige, his legacy, a Nobel Peace Prize and a place among the world’s most powerful leaders. At times, it feels as if “America First” has morphed into “Trump First.”
The president also sees the world through the eyes of a businessman, seeking deals and financial openings for the United States and sometimes for his family empire. His vision for Gaza is as much a development proposal as it is a humanitarian one. The driving force behind some of Trump’s exaggerated claims to have ended many wars, some that had never even started, is economic advantage and access to key minerals and rare earth metals that China currently has a strong grip on. At the same time, Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, are trying to promote global populism, even at the cost of undermining centrist governments, such as those in Britain, France and Germany, whose leaders he likes.
HOW TRUMP’S POLICIES FIT INTO HIS UNIQUE PLAN
The official explanation for Trump’s bailout offer for Argentina is that its faltering economy poses a contagion risk that could shake South America and even spread to the United States. That may be true. But Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made no effort Tuesday to hide the real motivation: to give a right-wing ally an advantage. “He’s MAGA all the way. It’s ‘Make Argentina Great Again,’” Trump said Tuesday as he hosted Miley at the White House. The Argentine leader is also a former Mar-a-Lago guest. “If he wins, we’ll stay with him,” Trump said. “And if he doesn’t win, we’ll leave,” he added.
In normal times, Trump’s boast of using billions of dollars of American taxpayer money to effectively try to corrupt voters in Argentina’s election, marking a blatant interference in a foreign country’s election, would cause a major scandal. It’s reminiscent of Trump’s threat to condition military aid to Ukraine on opening an investigation into Biden.
But when everything is a violation, nothing is. Trump was forced to confront the apparent contradiction between the MAGA philosophy and the rescue of a foreign nation when a reporter asked at the meeting with Milley, “How is this Argentina bailout, ‘America First’?” His hesitant response offered no reason other than to offer a political favor. But the Argentina initiative plays into a broader Trump priority — a grand global play for influence, economic supremacy, and power against China, which has been trying to compete with the U.S. for access to Argentine lithium and copper and has recently driven down the prices of American products by buying Argentine soybeans.
This desire to reshape Western Hemisphere politics – just as Trump is trying to transform the Middle East – also comes in part from unilateral US military strikes on alleged cartel targets near Venezuela.
The unilateral application of broad military force is true to a MAGA principle: trying to crack down on fentanyl trafficking, which has killed thousands of Americans, an issue that helped Trump connect with working-class voters.
But the campaign, which American critics argue is extrajudicial killing, increasingly looks like a geopolitical game of hard power to destabilize the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela’s economic crisis and repression have sent huge flows of migrants to the United States. Trump’s triumph in returning Israeli hostages and ending the fighting in Gaza is a more traditional U.S. foreign policy victory than most of his international ventures. After all, American presidents have been mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, largely unsuccessfully, for decades. But that move could run afoul of MAGA principles if American troops are sent to Gaza. Trump warned Tuesday that if Hamas does not lay down its weapons, “we will disarm it.” He did not say how he would do that. But until an international security force for the Gaza Strip is established, as promised in his 20-point peace plan, his comment will raise speculation about a deeper role than the coordination and logistical mission that some US personnel are expected to carry out in Israel.
U.S. involvement would raise concerns among Trump supporters about the potential problems in the Middle East that helped fuel his political movement in the first place. “Anything is possible with (Trump),” said Andrew Miller, a former assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the Biden administration. “But one of the central tenets that he has been based on since he came on the scene has been to stay out of the wars in the Middle East,” Miller told CNN News Central. “If we end up in a scenario with a large U.S. military contingent in Gaza, I think that would test the support for him from his base,” Miller added. (CNN)