I have written about the Trump Doctrine before. As we start to experience the effects of his approach to being President in his second term, it might be a good idea to review just what Trump’s approach as President is.
During Trump 1.0, I recall looking for some explanation about what the “experts” thought Trump’s approach to governance was. This was about six months after 1/20/2017. I entered the search term “Trump Doctrine” into Google. The first two pages of returns seemed to indicate that there was no such thing as a Trump Doctrine. Expert after expert claimed that Trump had no real approach to governance or foreign policy.
When I went to a different search engine about half of the returns talked about the Trump Doctrine. While I may have previously been aware that different search engines produced somewhat different results, this exercise in 2017 really opened my eyes to the potential bias in search engine results. Clearly Google was supporting the idea that Trump was an out-of-control President who couldn’t be trusted in the highest office of the land. Basically what Google was saying was that PDJT had no plan for how to govern.
Of course, that wasn’t true. PDJT had a framework for both foreign policy as well as domestic issues.
On the foreign policy playing field, PDJT has been the most consequential individual in my lifetime. North and South Korea saw the possibility of unification as well as the ending of conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The Gulf Cooperation Council was moved by Trump to stop radical Islamic extremism that was being supported by Qatar. Serbia and Kosovo moved away from conflict.
The Kurds and Turkey moved away from war and conflict. Trump helped to mediate a cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan. Then there were the Abraham Accords. This brought Israel and the UAE together…and then Bahrain…and then Sudan.
Some of this was lost when the election was stolen in 2020. Those controlling Biden did not want peace. War is a moneymaker for many of those who hide behind the curtain. President Eisenhower had warned the country about this during his farewell address to the nation at the end of his second term.
How did Trump accomplish all that he did during his first term? This happened due to the Trump Doctrine. PDJT’s approach to foreign policy is unique within the modern history of America. The short version might be “Peace through economic strength.” A different phrase might be something that Trump has uttered many times. “Economic security is national security.”
Rather than rattling a saber, Trump uses economic means to achieve national security objectives. Among those objectives are global peace. Trump’s voice is not the voice of the oligarchs or wealthy donors. His voice is the voice of ordinary people. This is why Trump was so popular worldwide, why crowds of people showed up to support him wherever he went on the planet.
Trump rattled the top of the power structures in so-called western democracies. Trump’s honesty cut through the pretending that is out there. This is why there was such a concerted effort to remove him from office during his first term. They could not control PDJT. The elite, power brokers were afraid of his influence. Let’s remember there are trillions at stake.
Sundance notes:
The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.
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When President Trump first visited the Middle East, he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”
Let’s look at a few examples.
Afghanistan and the Taliban. America should never have been in Afghanistan for all those years. Who had significant influence over the Taliban? It turns out it is Pakistan. Pakistan brought the Taliban to the table. This led to an exit plan for America from that hellhole. Of course, this was screwed up royally by Joe Biden and his band of incompetents.
North Korea. This may be the most obvious application of the Trump Doctrine. North Korea was a rogue state. The “Rocket Man” was a loose cannon. However, North Korea was directly influenced by China. In fact, it could be said that North Korea is simply another province of China.
PDJT recognized this and let China know that America would hold China responsible for North Korea’s behavior. This is another example of not pretending.
The change in “Rocket Man’s” behavior was nothing short of astounding.
Sundance notes:
By leveraging China (through economics) to stop manipulating North Korea, President Trump was opening a door of possibilities for the North Korean people. This is what I meant when I said Trump was providing North Korea with an opportunity to create an authentic version of itself.
What ultimately came from the opportunity President Trump constructed was lost in the 2020 U.S. election outcome. However, the opportunity itself was stunning progress creating a reasonable pathway to prosperity for the North Korean people.
Chairman Kim Jong-un had the opportunity to be the most trans-formative leader within Asia in generations; but it was always only an ‘opportunity’ that could exist if President Trump remained in place to provide it.
These are just two examples of the Trump Doctrine at work. There are many others. The responsibility for constructive, positive movement within the regional world community is placed by Trump upon those most responsible as influence agents in that sector of the world. These countries who undertake this receive the support of America.
Why was Trump able to do this? Because PDJT has no obligations to outside influencers. And that takes us to the ultimate confrontations, the mega-corporations.
A US foreign policy that is fully realized for the benefit of Americans is an earth-shattering shift away from corrupt globalists, bankers and financial elites. These people are used to dictating terms to the leaders of countries. This was fascism with the roles reversed. That is, instead of the countries dictating what corporations would do, the companies were telling the countries what the terms of engagement would be.
In America, the US Chamber of Commerce is one such corrupt influence agent. K-Street lobbyists are another. The World Economic Forum is a third.
Sundance notes:
When you take the influence of corporate/financial brokers out of foreign policy, all of a sudden, those global influence peddlers are worthless. Absent of their ability to provide any benefit, nations no longer purchase these brokered services.
As soon as influence brokers like the World Economic Forum are dispatched, national politicians become more accountable to the voices of their citizens. When representing the voices of citizens becomes the primary political driver of national policy, the authentic image of the nation is allowed to surface.
In Western countries, when you remove the multinational corporate and financial influence brokers, the governing elites are presented with two basic options for moving forward.
From Sundance:
♦ One option is to refuse to allow the authentic voice of a nationalist citizenry to rise. Essentially to commit to a retention of the status quo; an elitist view; a globalist perspective. This requires shifting to a more openly authoritarian system of government within both the economic and social spheres. Those who control the reins of power refuse to acquiesce to a changed landscape. This is what Europe is currently doing.
We are seeing this all across Europe. In the UK, the British people voted to Brexit from the EU despite a massive PR campaign by the elites against it. This has resulted in the UK government becoming more authoritarian and suppressing the free speech and other liberties of their citizens.
In Germany it has become illegal to insult the government. This includes posting memes on the Internet. In France Macron is still in office despite having lost an election. In Romania the courts invalidated an election because the winning candidate, who was not on anyone’s list, used a new method of attracting votes.
The unifying figure in all of this uprising of the unwashed masses is PDJT. Trump has consistently called on national leaders to represent their people and not the corrupt elites.
♦The second option is to allow the authentic and organic rise of nationalism. To accept the voices of the middle-class majority; to structure the economic and social landscape in a manner that allows the underlying identity to surface naturally. This is what El Salvador and Argentina are doing.
Hungary is another country where this has taken place. The elites are trying to suppress this in Romania and Georgia. You can believe that the elite, unelected bureaucrats in Brussels are having fits.
Then there is Canada. The Freedom Convoy of truckers was the organic rise of Canadian nationalism. It was ruthlessly put down. And yet in the end, almost all of what the truckers were fighting for was obtained. It was perhaps the most successful grassroots movement in history.
The Trump Doctrine allows everyone to benefit from America’s abilities on the world scene. President Trump is applying Adam Smith’s work, The Wealth of Nations, to our problems, both internally and externally. The underlying premise – treating each person we meet fairly in every business dealing – is good for everyone. And this idea still works.
When we work with the idea of good outcomes for each person we meet – including ourselves – in most instances, there is not any need for force or coercion.
It is the very old-fashioned principle of: “My word is my bond.”
This is something that the corrupt elites within our government and other western “democracies” must learn.
What Trump is saying is that you must allow Americans to compete on an equal footing. If not, you will no longer get to draw sustenance from the American economy. Your ability to drink will be restricted to the restrictions placed on American goods in your home country.
And that is only fair despite all the shrieking of the bureaucrats in Europe.