The Case for Trump’s Second-Term Foreign Policy

Last year in Foreign Affairs, I outlined a framework for a second Trump administration foreign policy that would restore the “peace through strength” posture that prevailed during Donald Trump’s first term as president. This vision of “America first” stood in stark contrast to the foreign policies pursued by the Obama and Biden administrations and the approaches advocated by influential Democratic strategists during the 2024 presidential campaign. Broadly speaking, they believe that the United States is in decline, and that this process must be skillfully managed through a variety of steps: unilateral disarmament (via gradual but significant cuts to military spending that harm readiness); apologizing for putative American excesses and misdeeds (as when, in 2022, Ben Rhodes, who had served as a deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, wrote that “historians will debate how much America might have instigated” Russian President Vladmir Putin’s aggressive acts, asking whether the United States had been “too triumphalist” in its foreign policy); appeasement (including ransom payments to Iran thinly disguised as humanitarian sanctions relief); and the partial accommodation of the desires of U.S. adversaries (as when, in January 2022, President Joe Biden suggested that Russia would face less significant consequences if it launched only a “minor incursion” into Ukraine instead of a full-scale invasion).

In 2024, having experienced 12 years of foreign policies predicated on these views, in contrast to four years of Trump’s “America first” foreign policy, the American people overwhelmingly chose strength over managed decline and went with Trump. Ever since, Trump has been using U.S. economic, diplomatic, and military power to deliver on every aspect of his foreign policy agenda. He has demonstrated that strength begets peace and security.

Since Trump took office for the second time in January, the U.S. military has begun a generational rebuilding of its capabilities, turbocharged by an additional $150 billion in spending on top of its regular budget request for fiscal year 2026. Trump persuaded American allies and partners to commit to boosting their defense spending to five percent of GDP and to take on more of the free world’s security burdens. The president has ended the chaos at the southern border. He has been unwavering in his support for Israel without conceding to Hamas and has revived maximum pressure on Iran, including by striking its nuclear enrichment sites. The war in Ukraine is also on the path to resolution, although admittedly at a much slower pace than Trump hoped, owing to Putin’s intransigence. These measures have restored American deterrence and could usher in a new era of stability.