The primary slogan of the Trump movement is the simple, now-iconic appeal to “Make America Great Again.” Indeed, “MAGA” is so ubiquitous that it is now a metonym for the movement itself. But if the Trump movement has a second catchphrase after “MAGA,” it would be “America First.” Donald Trump himself routinely vows that he is an “America First” politician. Myriad Republican congressional candidates now tout themselves as “America First,” typically with an eye toward securing a coveted Trump endorsement. And many prominent conservative commentators, often with close ties to Trump’s orbit, frequently beat the drums of “America First.”
But what exactly is meant by “America First”?
In a literal sense, “America First” is one of the most anodyne, uncontroversial political slogans in decades. It is, or at least should be, axiomatic that the United States ought to place its own interests first in everything it does: from its trade deals to its immigration policy to its diplomacy and foreign policy to its membership in international institutions, and so on. To pursue an “America First” foreign policy, then, is to make decisions through the singular lens of what is best for the U.S. national interest. Such a foreign policy approach is often dubbed “realist,” but it is also just commonsense.
Indeed, because it is such a basic analytical prism, “America First” does not necessarily get us very far when it comes to making actual foreign policy decisions. Any sober, national interest-centered foreign policy should look skeptically at ideological interventionism, whether it takes the form of dogged neoconservatism or starry-eyed liberal humanitarianism. Crucially, however, “America First” should look just as skeptically at ideologically driven foreign policy from the other end of the spectrum — meaning, doctrinaire isolationism.
The Trump administration intuited this, and the 45th president implemented this understanding in practice quite well. The “Trump Doctrine” was neither neoconservative nor isolationist; it rejected such an absurd false choice, opting instead for a narrower, national interest-centric foreign policy that eschewed ideological excess from any direction. Sometimes, that pragmatic calculus militated in favor of American restraint on the world stage. But sometimes, it militated in favor of decisive American action — just ask Qasem Soleimani.
Unfortunately, many voices on the Right now clamoring the loudest for “America First,” such as Tucker Carlson, either outright ignore or fail to grasp and appreciate such nuances. They conveniently overlook Trump’s actual presidential record, preferring instead to retcon history and conflate Trump-style “America First” with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)-style ideological isolationism. This is a disservice to the public discourse at best, and it is deceitful at worst.
How is it “America First,” as some would submit, to discount the importance of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel — a mass slaughter, that is, in which dozens of United States citizens were killed and many were captured and taken hostage? How is it “America First,” moreover, to question the American patriotism of those who care about what is, on its own terms, the single worst American hostage crisis since Tehran in 1979? How is it “America First” to dismiss those who are righteously indignant about the three American soldiers killed, and dozens more wounded, by an Iranian-supplied drone at Tower 22 in Jordan last Sunday? How is it “America First” for the United States to fail to respond in any capacity to a terrorist regime whose proxies have now struck our military bases over 170 times since Oct. 7?
There is nothing “America First” about mindlessly toppling foreign autocracies and seeking to transmogrify Islamist hellholes into shining Madisonian democracies. But there is also nothing “America First” about shirking our solemn duty to protect and defend our own citizens and soldiers overseas. Many now touting their “America First” bona fides sound a lot less like Donald Trump, who boasted of “defeating ISIS” on the 2020 campaign trail and installed fresh missile defense systems in Central and Eastern Europe to keep Vladimir Putin at bay, and a lot more like Charles Lindbergh and the “America First Committee” of old.
It is a rather curious conception of “America First” that would disavow any American interest in the very slaughter of its own citizens and soldiers overseas. The nation-building boondoggles of yesterday resulted in failure — indeed, the entire enterprise has been discredited. But basic, “peace through strength”-style deterrence is a timeless necessity. Caring about the fate of our citizens taken hostage overseas and seeking retaliation for our soldiers murdered by an evil adversary regime overseas, moreover, is about the lowest-hanging fruit imaginable for any American who calls himself a patriot.
It really doesn’t get much more “America First” than that.
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One does not have to be very bright to see that this Traitorous Democrat Party and their treasonous, corrupt, puppet president Joe Beijing OBiden and his administration are doing everything possible to make America Last. From our economy inflation, our energy independence destruction, prompting and supporting the open border illegal immigrant invasion and teaching our children to hate the U.S.. etc, etc.
What I can not figure out is why are so may voters in our country that have a death wish and support this traitorous Democrat Party??
These Biden bottom feeders fear problem solving truth speakers like Trump, becasue they know in their hearts that it is THEY who are the problem. They fear American success like they fear the light of day, always Making PARTY first, never the search for American excellence, which makes Joe and their party the “Anti-George Washington”, who was “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of the American people”. He did not get that accolade by making America losers, like President Biden has. How is it that Trump understands this and acts accordingly, while Joe just stumbles and takes us down with him? Obviously the Devil is in the details.
AND why do so many ‘citizens’, CELEBRATE REWARDING Foreigners over fellow American Citizens?!?!?!?
They don’t,,,the media is just tasked with making it seem they all do, changing the American Paradigm to fit the Obama New World Order that Makes America Mediocre,,,not again, but for the first time.
And folks wonder, why belief in our media is almost as low as it is in congress…
A great man doesn’t seek to lead. he is called into greatness and he ANSWERS. An uncalled for, Self-serving loser power seeker like Joe, has desperately sought and most times failed for 50 years to be President, fails to lead because unlike Trump he thinks he has all the answers. That is why Trump in 4 short years accomplished more to enlarge and increase THE PEOPLE than Joe did in his 50 yrs in government. Trump left office leaving THE PEOPLE richer for having known him and poorer in his own purse. Biden has left THE PEOPLE’s pockets emptier, and his own purse padded in laundered money for having known him, owning 50 times more in wealth than the sum total of all his government salaries taken FROM The People. Things never add up with Joe. Deficits and Debt follow the people wherever he leads. He always responds to making America first, by making America either as mediocre or last as his party of losers who can only win by coverups and misdirection of the truths that set us free. When caught in the act of failure, the only way forward for these chameleons is to change their stripes to the solid color of money as the answer, which is their only solution to fix even the problems they themselves created in massive governing malfeasances. MAGA to Dems is like turning on the light in a dark room is to cockroaches.,,they scurry back to the dark baseboards wherein lies the stolen votes.
I think majority of US citizens actually support Trump policies even if they don’t like the man.
Think the biggest problem voters face is knowing in advance who to elect to Congress that will stand for Trump policies whoever is president & can withstand the subversive actions & obstacles of far left zealots, power mongering self serving amoral politicians, globalist profiteers, anti America Marxists & deep state Dem Party progressives embedded thru out the govt & media.
Exam: majority of people think nation is headed in wrong direction under Dem Party policies but where are the Dem Congress members willing to admit same & change their stance to support the majority of citizens?
Congress to me is more important than prez since it is only Congress who can enact, fund & require enforcement of laws.
The large amount of Congress are treasonous Democrats and Democrat RINOs.
The very powerful Democrats and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They do not alter their view to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their view.
This is a very common trait among the majority of Democrats.
To this treasonous self-righteous, woke Democrat Party and their idiot supporters, the U.S. Constitution, Laws, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History are all irrelevant, if the Democrats do not WANT to believe them or they disagree with them. Democrats will just make up their own, laws, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History to fit what they WANT to believe or fits into the Con or Deception that they are running at the time.
TOO me, there’s just WAY TOO many entrenched swamp dwellers in Congress. IN BOTH PARTIES.
Maybe if we renamed things like MAGA with names that included BOTH Joe and Trump in the wording they would embrace the best of those Trump policies that work for the benefit of all;
Joe plus Trump = Jump,,,,produce results.,,,,,,Joe minus Trump = Trojan,,, as in a Back stabbing Trojan Horse that provides no protection.
America First refers to an isolationist policy stance in the United States that generally emphasizes American exceptionalism, non-interventionism, and American nationalism.