From ‘America First’ to global confrontation: How Trump’s strategy is changing US power
Donald Trump saw his historic mission as restoring American greatness and pulling the US out of the strategic drift of the past decade and a half. Initially, both Trump and his MAGA allies framed this task in terms of national concentration and restraint.
Their idea was to move away from liberal globalism and the ideology of wokeness toward a pragmatic, business-minded approach to foreign policy. Instead of defending the interests of an American empire across the globe, Washington would turn inward and focus on domestic problems. In this conception, the US would acknowledge the diversity of the international system and accept the reality of several great powers with whom it would have to negotiate.
The priorities were supposed to be clear. First would come the US itself, then the Western Hemisphere, then China, and only after that the rest of the world. The main sphere of American activity would be geo-economics. Among security challenges, illegal immigration and drug trafficking would take precedence. The challenge posed by China was understood primarily as technological and economic.
Trump promised quick solutions to international conflicts, including Ukraine. He presented himself as a president of peace.
Trump’s second presidency began energetically. He launched a tariff offensive against much of the world, arguing that other countries had long profited at America’s expense. He distanced himself ideologically from Europe. At the same time, the US carried out a devastating strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Trump also openly lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Direct contact between Washington and Moscow was re-established through Trump’s trusted envoys. Shuttle diplomacy followed, culminating in a brief summit between Trump and President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage. Out of that meeting emerged a certain understanding between the two countries regarding the possible formula and mechanisms for resolving the Ukrainian conflict, what in Russia has sometimes been described as the “spirit of Anchorage.”
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