U.S. Security Policy in the Trump Era Has Been Marked by Change—and Continuity

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When President Donald Trump entered office under an “America First” banner, it seemed to herald a new era of U.S. isolationism. More than two years into his term, though, and the shifts in military strategy are minimal. Though their numbers are down, U.S. troops are still stationed in Afghanistan, and the Trump administration left unchanged the strategy against the Islamic State that it inherited from its predecessor. 

Nevertheless, Trump’s isolationist instincts have come into regular tension with his closest advisers, many of whom espouse a more traditional view of American power projection. This was never clearer than in December 2018, when Trump ignored his aides and announced his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria, prompting then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign in protest. Trump subsequently softened his rhetoric, without definitively articulating a final policy, contributing to the sense of uncertainty over America’s security policymaking. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s vision has not stopped his advisers from hinting at military intervention as a path to regime change in places like Venezuela and Iran. In the latter case, Trump has recently made his opposition to war clear. Trump’s America First agenda has actually taken its heaviest toll on long-standing alliances. While he has prompted moderate increases in European defense spending, his vocal criticisms of NATO have weakened the alliance’s cohesion. 

There have also been some shifts. The administration has positioned economic security as central to national security and justified its increasing use of tariffs on those grounds. Immigration—particularly along the border with Mexico—has also become a key focus of the security agenda. But Washington has pulled back from counterinsurgency efforts, even as the Islamic State regroups as a terrorist movement and, more broadly, America’s technological advantage over potential insurgent groups shrinks. 

WPR has covered the U.S. military and its security strategy in detail and continues to examine key questions about what will happen next. Will Trump’s move away from war with Iran sideline the hawks in his administration? Will the shift away from counterinsurgency allow ISIS to reemerge as an insurgency? And will Trump’s failure to enact his isolationist agenda affect his 2020 reelection bid? Below are some of the highlights of WPR’s coverage.