Reid Smith
It has been almost a year since President Donald Trump took office for the second time, promising at his inauguration, “During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.” Shortly after Trump was elected, I laid out the case in Foreign Affairs for an “America first” foreign policy of restraint, one that acknowledges that the United States “operates in a world of constraints.”
Trump was uniquely positioned to execute such a policy—and in some important respects, he has begun to do so. The administration’s National Security Strategy, released in December, redefines national security around the health and cohesion of the republic, elevating the Western Hemisphere and the economic and moral resilience of American society rather than reinforcing liberal primacy. And on the ground in Europe and particularly in Asia, the rudiments of a more restrained, interest-based approach are indeed emerging. But in the Middle East and Latin America, interventionist reflexes are still shaping the administration’s policy. The Trump administration’s latest foreign policy foray—a military operation to capture Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and, potentially, to manage the country’s affairs—is the clearest example.
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