The Books That Built Trump’s National Security Strategy

Patrick Buchanan and Angelo Codevilla wrote the playbook for America First. - Francis P. Sempa

Since 2015, Donald Trump has promoted an “America First” foreign policy despite criticism from the legacy media and the American and broader Western foreign policy establishment. 

Trump’s national security strategy is not ambiguous or open to differing interpretations. 

What you see is what you get. 

• Its essence is a whole-of-government approach to promoting, preserving, protecting, and advancing the interests of the United States.

Trump’s strategy is not, as the critics claim, isolationist, though it does emphasize noninterventionism abroad and hemispheric security at home. 

• It revitalizes the Monroe Doctrine, recognizing that security at home and within the Western Hemisphere is of paramount importance. 
• It recognizes that without hemispheric security, the United States would be forced to turn inward and have significantly less influence on international events. 
• It seeks good commercial relations with all nations, including the country’s adversaries, but it insists on fair trade instead of “free trade.”
• Unmatched economic and military power are the sine qua non of Trump’s national security strategy...