Last Thursday, in the dead of night in Washington, President Donald Trump’s administration quietly released its new National Security Strategy. Normally, the announcement of a new NSS is a fairly major event. In 2017, during his first term, Trump personally unveiled it on live television. Other administrations have also sought to draw attention to their iterations of the document, which outlines America’s security priorities and the philosophy underpinning them.
The break with tradition went beyond the stealthiness of the announcement. The new NSS marks a dramatic departure from decades of U.S. foreign policy.
Pinning down Trump’s foreign policy can sometimes seem like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. After all, Trump’s actions are essentially guided by whatever he thinks, and what he thinks can swing wildly from one day to another. But to the extent that the NSS document articulates a coherent foreign policy vision, it is something of an America First primer, even if its many inconsistencies and internal contradictions at times look like a concoction of the competing ideologies espoused by the loudest voices surrounding the president.