Their criticism is that his traditional Jacksonian foreign policy—no better friend, no worse enemy; intervening on the behalf of allies; trying to win over neutrals; punishing enemies; not engaging in optional Middle East wars; retaliation only, as in the first term, get rid of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, get rid of Qassem Soleimani, get rid of the Wagner Group, etc., but not insert troops on the ground—that has morphed, according to his critics, now into a mercantile foreign policy where the chief element is to make money and not to have any idealistic element. And so, Donald Trump’s idea about foreign policy I think is the following: If you get people to agree on particular elements, barometers of peace, and you engage with them economically, then they will see that it’s to their advantage not to commit terrorism or war but to try to mutually profit. But it doesn’t change the actual fact: He’s had more success getting to a ceasefire in Ukraine and more success in the Middle East than the prior administration under whose watch two theater wars broke out and we had the disaster in Afghanistan.
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Published at: 2025-05-21 21:42:55
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