(The Lion) — President Donald Trump has released the latest National Security Strategy of the United States, emphasizing many of the themes he campaigned on, such as America First and reducing world conflict.
The framework aims to safeguard national security, revitalize U.S. economic power and reassert American leadership abroad by breaking with past policies the administration says have failed America.
The paper sharply criticized U.S. foreign-policy elites, arguing they presided over more than 70 years of drift, overreach and strategic error.
“After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country,” the strategy document notes. “Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.”
Framed deliberately through an America first lens, the document outlined the administration’s view that U.S. policy must return to the protection of core U.S. national interests.
The policy breaks from decades of post-Cold War foreign and defense policy involving the U.S. in major wars around the world in every decade since the end of World War II on all continents but Antarctica.
The strategy paper argued successive administrations embraced a form of globalism seeking ideological transformation abroad while effectively promoting global anti-Americanism.
“In sum, not only did our elites pursue a fundamentally undesirable and impossible goal, in doing so they undermined the very means necessary to achieve that goal: the character of our nation upon which its power, wealth, and decency were built,” the policy paper says.
According to the document, the former approach allowed allies to depend heavily on American defense spending for protection, which weakened the U.S. industrial base and eroded the middle class.
The Trump administration positioned the new policy as a “correction,” saying it will restore strategic clarity, economic focus and what it describes as a renewed era of “America’s great strength.”
Throughout, the policy asserted America’s muscular financial and energy industry dominance as key strengths that should propel national security globally.
“America First” under Trump, noted the directive, stresses national sovereignty, border security and economic independence as the basis of long-term stability.
The White House paper called for continued investment in a robust military, greater resilience in critical infrastructure and the rebuilding of supply chains tied to domestic and defense production.
“That requires not only direct defense industrial production capacity but also defense-related production capacity,” the White House said. “Cultivating American industrial strength must become the highest priority of national economic policy.”
The strategy warned of threats ranging from military aggression and espionage to predatory trade practices and cultural influence operations by foreign adversaries.
It noted U.S. leadership in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum computing, will be essential to maintaining global preeminence.
‘Trump Corollary’
A major component of the strategy is called the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” the 19th century policy declaring the U.S., not Europe, was the premier power of the Americas.
The Trump administration described the “Trump Corollary” as a modernized commitment to Western Hemisphere security and economic cohesion.
The document reaffirmed U.S. dominance in the Hemisphere and said it aims to prevent foreign rivals from acquiring strategic assets or establishing political footholds in the region.
It called for tighter regional cooperation to confront drug cartels, stem illegal immigration and stabilize vulnerable states:
“We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets and that supports critical supply chains.”
While the national security document argued generally against intervention in foreign states’ affairs, the policy clarified intervention, especially in such matters as destroying drug cartels and preventing illegal immigration, might be necessary for countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The strategy endorsed targeted deployments along the border to defeat cartels, including the possible use of lethal force, for example.
Finally, the newly published policy seeks to establish or expand U.S. access to strategic locations throughout the region by shuffling military resources back to the Western Hemisphere.
Implied in the language is possible U.S. military intervention inside Western Hemisphere countries that need help stabilizing their government against cartels or hostile forces, which some countries may welcome soon. The Los Angeles Times recently reported slightly more than half of Mexican citizens would approve a U.S. occupation to defeat the cartels’ grip on their country.
Beyond the Western Hemisphere, the strategy outlines priorities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
China
In Asia, the document reiterated the goal of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region while countering China’s military and economic ambitions.
The strategy portrayed China as the U.S.’s primary long-term competitor, defining attempts to liberalize China through the country’s exploitation of its economic relationship with the U.S. as a failure.
“[The liberalization] did not happen. China got rich and powerful, and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage. American elites – over four successive administrations of both political parties – were either willing enablers of China’s strategy or in denial,” the paper said.
It called for rebalancing the relationship through fair trade agreements, secure supply chains and protecting U.S. technological leadership, which will help reset China’s own internal political conditions, to be more realistic and stable.
It emphasized deterring Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific while strengthening alliances and preserving American economic and technological superiority.
In Europe, the administration urged a revival of what it terms civilizational confidence, expanded NATO burden-sharing and increased defense spending up to 5% of GDP, to make Europe great again.
The strategy paper also emphasized the need for strategic stability with Russia and a swift resolution to the war in Ukraine.
“It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia,” the document said.
The Middle East
In the Middle East, the administration signaled a move away from nation-building toward partnerships, conflict resolution and economic integration.
The document cited ongoing efforts to conclude the war in Gaza and expand the Abraham Accords.
It stressed the importance of safeguarding global energy flows in the region while encouraging allies to counter extremism and pursue internal reforms that expanded freedoms.
Africa
For Africa, the strategy described the continent as a region of substantial untapped potential, which could be derailed by the rise of Islamic extremism.
The administration proposed shifting from providing aid to substituting trade and investment in Africa.
“An immediate area for U.S. investment in Africa, with prospects for a good return on investment, include the energy sector and critical mineral development,” the policy paper noted.
Throughout, the National Security Strategy emphasized the traditional peace through strength model, with more flexible realism and the primacy of nation-state self-interest for the U.S.
