TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY 2.0 — Back to the 1930's and America First.

Stuart Malawer

February 17

Trump's foreign policies for a second term are now coming into focus as he strives for another term. Thoughtful article appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal surveying the possibilities including a new 10% tariff on all imports, tougher policies concerning Iran, rapprochement with North Korea, more aggressive trade approach with China (revoking Most-Favored-Nation treatment), and a general a more protectionist and restrictive national-interest approach to foreign policy -- which includes more aggressive unilateralism and retreat from multilateral institutions and agreements.

In another words, a form of isolationism 2.0 resembling but worse than that of the 1930's and 'America First' -- that kept us from confronting Nazi Germany for years. The following are comments from the above article:

Trumps foreign-policy agenda is coming into sharper relief following the incendiary suggestion that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO nations that fall short on defense-spending goals. Trump's views largely track those of his first term.

Trump's conviction that America has been taken advantage of long predates his election in 2016, and he has helped to intensify an isolationist strain in the GOP, while suppressing the appetite in both parties for multilateral trade accords. Expanding the Abramson Accords in the Middle East.

Broadly, Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on all imported goods, a move business and economic leaders say would be devastating for the U.S. economy, and he has floated much higher rates for China. He is itching for a tariff fight with European carmakers and has promised to once again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords. He has declared that Biden's fledgling economic cooperation pact with 13 Indo-Pacific countries would be dead on arrival.

On Iran, Trump would return to the tougher policies of his first term, when he terminated the Obama-era accord to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump allies have said it is likely he would seek new sanctions, but the candidate hasn't been specific about how he would handle current hostilities.

To expand on the Abraham Accords, a marquee achievement of his first term that forged Israeli relations with several Arab states. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, played a central role in negotiating the accords. Kushner, who started a private-equity firm that has raised money from Saudi, Emirati and Qatari investors, has said he wouldn't rejoin the White House if Trump won a second term.

Trump would also have to deal with an increasingly bellicose North Korea, which U.S. officials say is now supplying weapons to Russia. Trump was initially hostile to Kim, promising in 2017 that threats would be "met with fire and fury like the world has never seen," but he then sought a high-stakes rapprochement that failed to achieve a deal.

Mixed approach to China. Trump has promised an even more aggressive approach on trade, saying he wants to revoke normal trading relations, a legal step that would automatically raise levies on everything from toys and aircraft to industrial materials. He has talked of tariffs exceeding 60%.

"Trump Foreign Policy 2.0." Wall Street Journal (Feb. 17, 2024).