The recently released National Security Strategy of the Trump administration to the uninformed or casual reader might sound plausible and positive, but it is nothing, if not disingenuous and shallow. It is a \u201cslight of hand\u201dattempt to deceive the American people, what one of my professors would have called \u201ca smoke enema.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the Document does – and I use the term \u201cdocument\u201d lightly – is play to our worst traits for domestic purposes and provide cover for Trump\u2019s avarice overseas. Above all, it defines \u201cAmerica First\u201d for what it is now and what it was back in Lindbergh\u2019s* day, a misguided understanding of patriotism that embraces nativism, xenophobia and isolationism.<\/p>\n
The statement is full of platitudes that offer up palliatives that promise to fix a country that needs fixing far less than it needs relief from its president and the MAGA insanity that presently presides. It is mendacious in its recounting of successes – that the U.S, for example, has rebuilt alliances, annihilated Iran\u2019s nukes and made America strong and respected again. Claims of settling the Gaza crisis are dangerously premature while the failures in Ukraine go unmentioned. Most disturbing is the administration\u2019s apparent acceptance of Russia\u2019s goal to hobble NATO and the abandonment of democracy as a laudable goal.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s alleged \u201cstrategy\u201d for Latin America is nothing more than a rehash of traditional American policy of \u201cDollar Diplomacy\u201d and the Monroe Doctrine. President Taft (1909-1913) employed American economic power south of the border to promote stability and further U.S. commercial interests in the region, a policy that often led to charges of imperialism and failed to head off the Mexican Revolution and subsequent unrest. The Monroe Doctrine (1823), in its claim for American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, has been subject to interpretation since its inception. This is especially true for the Roosevelt Corollary which, though widely applauded initially, eventually led to charges of American imperialism. Trump\u2019s \u201cstrategy\u201d is to use both commercial enticements and threats of intervention to make money and stabilize the region, a plan we have tried before. If implemented, who knows what interpretations and actions might ensue given Trump\u2019s impetuous style.<\/p>\n
The really big problem here is that the \u201celephant in the room\u201d is Trump, a most volatile and untrustworthy guarantor. His track record as president begs the question: would you buy a used car from Donald Trump?<\/p>\n