Donald Trump will forever be identified as the dragon slayer. In 2016, he deep-sixed two political dynasties, those of the Bushes and Clintons. In 2024, his decisive victory over Kamala Harris reversed the tide of rampant progressivism. And in 2025, he has brought neoconservatism to its knees, replacing it with an entirely different vision of America’s role in the world. His widely lauded journey to the Middle East sent the loud and unmistakable signal that he would pursue an international strategy centered around strength, commerce, and pragmatism instead of paternalism, intervention, and “stupid foreign wars.”
The bookends surrounding a quarter-century of foreign adventurism, nation-building, and exporting democracy to often unwilling nations are now crystal clear. President George W. Bush met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June of 2001 and said, “I looked the man in the eye … I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. I was able to get a sense of his soul.” In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 that year, after specifically ruling out “nation building” during his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush quickly changed his mind. The 43rd president triggered two well-intentioned but ultimately disastrous wars in the Middle East, kicking off a generation of interventionist, neoconservative foreign policy that was eventually adopted in various forms by the right and left alike.
In his second inaugural address in 2005, Bush was transparent about his intentions: “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world … So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” And so, exporting democracy to the ends of the earth to secure a global world order became the touchstone of American foreign policy.
The Dawn of a New Era
Two decades after Bush’s declaration of spreading our form of government far and wide, President Trump declared during his recent visit to a trio of Middle East allies, “In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins. I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgement — my job [is] to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.” On a journey in which he strengthened alliances through shared interests, Trump officially ended the era of neoconservatism as he called for “commerce, not chaos.”
While Joe Biden understandably decried the Russian invasion of Ukraine and pledged endless support to the Ukrainians based on moral outrage, Trump is offering up an olive branch to both sides. If he were a full-on isolationist, Trump might have washed his hands of the conflict, declaring it a matter for the warring countries to decide between themselves and the rest of Europe. If the president were a pure nationalist, he might have sought to exploit the ever-weakening Russian military to expand American influence in the region. Instead, eschewing lectures on morality in order to get both sides to the negotiating table, Trump is committed to seeking an end to the slaughter.
If the president were a neoconservative, he would support the use of American strength unilaterally to shred Iran’s nuclear program. Instead, he is using the carrot and stick by speaking in gracious terms, offering the Iranians a pathway to peace and stability while warning that he will not under any circumstances allow them to build a nuclear weapon. It will be up to the regime in Tehran to decide.
Trump Shock Therapy
As is his wont, Trump first revealed his America First worldview with shock therapy in the midst of the 2016 Republican primaries. During a debate before the contest in South Carolina that year, he attacked Bush for starting the war in Iraq, a serious risk in a state strongly connected to the US military. But when he surprisingly and easily topped the field in the Palmetto State, it revealed that Republicans were, by and large, of the same mindset, weary of foreign adventurism and focused more on strengthening the homeland.
Trump had changed the conversation, and once elected as the 45th president, he conducted foreign policy in a very different fashion than that to which the American people had become accustomed. He called out NATO nations for stinginess in defense of their alliance, ended American participation in the UN’s globalist Climate Accord, and canceled the Iran nuclear deal designed to appease the anti-American regime in Tehran. He strengthened the military while becoming the first president of the 21st century to keep the country out of new foreign conflicts. After annexing Georgia during the Bush administration and Crimea during the Barack Obama presidency, Putin retreated. Peace through strength worked.
Back to the Future
When Joe Biden became president, the traditional globalist, neoconservative foreign policy mindset rose afresh. Biden reinstated the Iran nuclear agreement and rejoined the Paris Accord. After taking no action in response to Russia massing its troops on the Ukrainian border, war raged, and Biden famously iterated that under his watch, the United States would support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” He essentially promised a blank check to a country of dubious import to American national security.
Once Trump returned to office, far stronger than when he first entered the White House in 2017, there would be no more blank checks to Ukraine. No more accommodating agreements with the Iranians and their oft-stated intent of destroying the United States and Israel. No more playing both sides in a Middle East driven to chaos by the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. No more prevaricating. Trump would protect American, not global, interests at all costs. He set out to level a grossly uneven playing field through tariffs, incentivizing our trade partners to strengthen ties with the United States. He made deals for trillions of dollars to be invested in America. He allied with Ukraine not through weapons but commerce in the form of a mutually beneficial deal on rare earth minerals. He raised tariffs on the Chinese and their export economy to levels that could eventually destroy their economy in order to draw them to the negotiating table and forge a more sustainable trade partnership.
More than anything else, Trump is offering countries around the world freedom of choice. Do they want to play ball with us and face the promise of a bright future? Or do they want to continue threatening their neighbors and retain past inequities at the cost of isolating themselves from the world’s greatest superpower? Trump is willing to use every ounce of his substantial leverage regarding China, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere to protect American interests while offering the promise of shared prosperity. For Americans worn out by foreign wars and accommodation to a global world order, it stands as a breath of fresh air and a pivot point in America’s relations with the world around us.
