A nation’s strategy is based on its ideas of the self, allies, enemies and interests. On all these aspects, Donald J. Trump has come to represent a radically different view from his predecessors, though his capacity to turn that into policy and action is uneven. On November 25, Mr. Trump released the National Security Strategy (NSS) of his second term, which is more in alignment with his America First politics than his first NSS in 2017. The NSS is a document that outlines the foreign policy thinking and approach of each President in each term. In his first term, Mr. Trump was still surrounded by the professional strategic class of the U.S. The 2017 NSS echoed familiar talking points of the past, leading many to conclude that Mr. Trump did not have plans or the capacity to shake off what Barack Obama had termed the ‘Washington playbook’. The second coming is different, and Mr. Trump’s new NSS makes that clear.
This assertion of Mr. Trump’s worldview in American strategy is most evident in the approach towards Russia and China. If he can push that through in the face of resistance and sabotage from within the U.S. establishment, NSS-2025 could form the basis of a new world order for the current century. In 2017, Russia was mentioned 25 times, always in negative terms, and 11 times along with China — clubbing these countries together as enemies of the U.S.
