President Trump Unveils “America First” National Security Strategy

Basically, all you need to know about the National Security Strategy that was unveiled this afternoon is that it was written by HR McMaster, Dina Powell and Nadia Schadlow, and they inserted some Trumpian themes and rhetoric into what we were already doing in the world:

“WASHINGTON — President Trump’s first national security strategy envisions a world in which the United States confronts two “revisionist” powers — China and Russia — that are seeking to change the global status quo, often to the detriment of America’s interests.

But while the document outlines a detailed plan to push back against China’s global economic ambitions, it says little about dealing with the kind of cyber and information warfare techniques that Moscow used to try to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The strategy, which Mr. Trump presented in a speech on Monday afternoon, is the first comprehensive effort by his administration to describe an all-encompassing strategic worldview. Administration officials said it was drawn from speeches Mr. Trump had delivered during the presidential campaign, in Europe and Asia and at the United Nations. …”

Read the whole thing.

“America First” is nothing but a marketing gimmick. Nothing about our foreign policy is going to fundamentally change. It was already evident in the editorial by Gary Cohn and HR McMaster that was published in July called “The Trump Vision for America Abroad.”

Note: I’m going to update this post after watching the speech and reading the whole document. I doubt anything in there is going to change my mind though.