Since winning reelection to the White House last week, President-elect Donald Trump has rapidly started to form his cabinet and fill senior White House positions. Notably, the administration has filled or selected nominees for several key national security roles, including National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, and United Nations Ambassador. The post of Secretary of State will go to Senator Marco Rubio, who during Trump’s first term was known as “a virtual secretary of state for Latin America” owing to his vigorous efforts to intensify American resolve against Venezuela.
President Trump’s initial selections demonstrate a clear commitment to advancing US interests within a framework of peace through strength. America’s adversaries have every reason to be worried—and that’s for the best.
Over the course of his presidency, President Biden’s foreign policy has been hamstrung by a technocratic approach that has resulted in excessive caution while also trying to cater to progressive constituencies at home.
For example, in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration has pushed for enough aid to keep Ukraine in the fight but has repeatedly dithered over providing certain weapons or reducing barriers to using US-supplied weapons on Russian territory. Rhetorically, the Biden Administration has stated it is in the fight for “as long as it takes,” which is hardly a strategy. Biden thus both failed to deter the full-scale invasion and then, operating with a lack of decisiveness, has sent billions of dollars worth of US resources to a conflict for which it has no clear endgame.
The incoming administration’s approach seems designed to take back control of the global landscape in the sense that rather than reacting to and managing cascading conflagrations, it will seek resolute action to enable the United States to focus on the severe challenge posed by China.
This approach is evident in a recent piece for The Economist by incoming National Security Advisor and current Florida Representative Mike Waltz and the Atlantic Council’s Matthew Kroenig. Noting how the current administration’s foreign policy blunders and indecisiveness have redounded to China’s benefit and invited more aggression from adversaries, the two authors argue for leveraging US strengths to wind down conflicts on favorable terms. In Europe, this means unleashing US natural gas and cracking down on Russian oil sales to choke Russia’s economy. If more is needed to bring Vladimir Putin to the table, the United States could also provide a jolt to Ukraine with more weapons and fewer restrictions to increase costs on already war-weary Russian troops. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Washington should restore pressure on Iran and support Israel’s effort to finish the fight against Hamas.
For her part, incoming UN Ambassador and current New York Representative Elise Stefanik has been a staunch supporter of Israel and proponent of increasing pressure on Iran. President Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, has also expressed firm support for Israel while acknowledging the scale of the challenge posed by China. He has also been a staunch critic of progressive ideology emanating into the US military from the Pentagon and undermining American military strength.
In a piece I wrote for Providence over the summer, I noted that it was a misnomer to characterize the now-Vice President-elect’s foreign policy toward Europe as isolationist. Senator Vance had called for improved burden-sharing with European allies and suggested it was a fool’s errand to think Ukraine would regain its full territory, but he had not called for abandoning US security commitments or letting Ukraine fall under Moscow’s shadow.
With the benefit of seeing the president-elect’s burgeoning national security team, I think it is fair to say the isolationist canard can be readily dismissed as a gross misapprehension of the new administration’s foreign policy. A better understanding is to see the administration as poised to prioritize China while restoring effective deterrence in Europe and the Middle East.
Put more bluntly: The incoming administration will look to quickly clean up the messiness of the global security environment over the past four years, reinvigorate US military strength, and redirect US resources across the Pacific to ensure America wins the growing confrontation with its most significant adversary since the Soviet Union.
