During his inaugural address on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump elicited significant pushback and raised many eyebrows when he proclaimed that: "From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be 'America First.' " Analysts wondered out loud if he intended to roll out a new period of isolationism, non-interventionism or economic nationalism. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that Trump's inaugural "radically redefined the American national interest as understood since World War II." Instead of exercising global leadership, the United States was now opting for "insularity and smallness." Conservative journalist Bill Kristol, founder and Editor-at Large of the Weekly Standard, lamented: "I'll be embarrassedly old fashioned here: it is profoundly depressing and vulgar to hear an American president proclaim 'America First.' "
It is questionable whether President Trump really understood what he proclaimed on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol that afternoon. According to a corroborated report published by the Wall Street Journal, his speech was written by chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller, both of whom have long been associated with Breitbart and the white supremacist movement. They knew very well that "America First" historically stood for the "America First Committee," which was founded at Yale Law School in 1940. It was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against American entry into WWII, and was characterized by anti-Semitic and pro-Fascist rhetoric. Membership peaked at 800,000 paying members in 450 chapters, and counted people like Charles Lindbergh, Walt Disney and Frank Lloyd Wright among its most prominent members. It was dissolved on December 10, 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor had brought the war to America. Professor Eric Rauchway of the history department at U.C. Davis summarized the "America First" concept as: A white America, living behind higher walls and screens, lashing out to prove its strength and then retreating again - not a government suspiciously tolerant of foreign threats." (Eric Rauchway, "President Trump's 'America First' slogan was popularized by Nazi sympathizers," Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2017.)
Many who considered the use of this slogan, including, I suspect, Trump himself, may have understood it to refer to some measure of isolationism, a policy or doctrine of trying to isolate one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, and generally attempting to make one's economy self reliant. In its purest form, isolationism is a nation's total retreat from the world stage, something we attempted at various time throughout our history, dating back to the Founders. Our Founding Fathers saw America's geographical separation from Europe as an ideal opportunity to cultivate the new nation in solitude. George Washington suggested that: "Our detached and distant situation [from Europe] invites and enables us to pursue a different course. Thomas Jefferson warned against "entangling alliances." ("A brief history of American isolationism," The Week, June 5, 2016.)
Following the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in the harbor of Havana on February 15, 1898, which killed 260 U.S. sailors, President McKinley ended isolationism by declaring war on Spain. It was revived after the U.S. suffered 116,516 deaths and 320,000 sick and wounded during WWI. Our Senate voted 49-35 against joining The League of Nations, the international organization, substantially conceived by President Woodrow Wilson after the end of WWI to provide a forum for resolving international disputes, and pursued economic issues throughout the 1930's, ignoring the ascend of militaristic dictatorships in Europe and Japan. When war broke out with the invasion of the Sudetenland in 1938 and Poland in 1939, the isolationist Congress kept us out, and the war gave rise to the previously discussed "America First Committee."
Non-interventionism and isolationism, even though distinct, are frequently conceptually confused, while economic nationalism, or protectionism, is often seen as a subset of isolationism. Mr. Trump's expressed proclivity to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel, under the guise of national security and "America First," seems to underscore his confusion as well. The last time this country pursued a significant protectionist policy was during the Hoover administration when the president signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, with tariffs on over 20,000 goods, which exacerbated the Great Depression, and led to retaliatory actions by other nations.
The jury is still out on Trump's protectionist inclinations - the Washington Post calls him a "novice protectionist" - however, it would be a stretch, and it would give the administration too much credit, to connect the president's I augural proclamation to significant policy prescriptions. " Ordering punitive strikes against a regime that murders its own citizens while posing no threat to the United States, as Trump did it Syria, is not isolationism." Nor is it non-interventionism. His intent to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, his threats against North Korea, and his views on the viability of NATO do not suggest disengagement. (Andrew Bacevich, "Saving 'America First,' What Responsible Nationalism Looks Like," Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct, 2017). "Policy" refers to a set of ideas or plans that is used as basis for making decisions. Mr. Trump displays a chaotic mindset, unfocused on recognizable policy principles, which has already negatively affected our global leadership position. Given the administration's behavior during the past 14 months, "America First" appears to simply have been an ill-informed impulse, a slogan co-opted by speech writers expressing their personal political agenda.
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