It’s been several weeks since my last post, as I wanted to wait to see how the new Trump Administration would manage both the transition and our country’s foreign policy.
I think it’s safe to say that we’ve seen enough to recognize that what our foreign policy will be doesn’t resemble anything like what it once was, as President Trump is upending core assumptions about what America stands for around the world.
Within the span of just weeks, he has, for all intents and purposes, shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), causing global humanitarian distress and creating an opening for China — full disclosure: my first job after grad school was at USAID.
He has sent Europe into an uproar by expressing empathy for Russia’s position on its war with Ukraine while distancing us from our NATO allies.
He has overturned the Middle East table by calling for us to take over Gaza and push the Palestinians out, creating a “Riviera on the Mediterranean.”
He has mused about creating American empire, calling for Canada to become our 51st state, threatening to take over the Panama Canal despite having a treaty that gave it to them, and dreaming of purchasing Greenland, which isn’t for sale.
This doesn’t even account for his mass firings of senior State Department and Defense Department career officials, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, without any clear justification other than the vague argument about how they wouldn’t advance his America First agenda.
It’s therefore safe to say that, with only a shade more than one month completed out of the 48 months of this presidential term, we’re likely to see the most dramatic changes to America’s role in the world since the Cold War.
The question then that we must all ask ourselves is, what does this mean for our country’s security, for our national values, and for our democracy?
Because one thing’s for certain, this is a moment where all bets are off and anything can happen.
So on that note, I look forward to sharing with you my views, in this new era, of what this all means for our country and the world around us through The Briefing Book.
Stay tuned. And stay strong.
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