The Real “Donroe Doctrine”: Spectacular, Made-for-TV Violence

Trump’s increasingly bellicose deployment of the American military and his expressed isolationist “America First” agenda are often depicted as being contradictory or hypocritical, but I think that misses the point. First, as with Trump’s insistence that the U.S. should have “taken the oil” during the Iraq War, his larger theory of American power is that it should be used in short, destructive bursts that achieve (often stupid or pointless) strategic objectives—like taking the oil. Second, his larger theory of international relations is that whatever country has the more powerful military should basically be allowed to do whatever it wants. One of his main criticisms of American foreign policy is that U.S. power is often used on behalf of the interests of other countries—which is significantly different from saying it shouldn’t be used at all.

Trump’s use of the American military has grown bolder, which is partly a reflection of the minimal response it has received from its victims, like Iran and now Venezuela, and partly of the fact that, unlike during much of his first term, he is now surrounded by cronies who have successfully purged what he referred to as the “Deep State” during his first term. But, as I wrote earlier this week, it also points to a growing symbiosis between the Republican Party’s MAGA wing and more interventionist friendly figures, many of whom, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, predate Trump and his political movement.

Guiding all of it is Trump’s steadfast belief that the United States can engage in destructive and (for him, at least) thrilling military operations that are designed to compel adversaries to do what we want via intimidation, terror, and violence. There is a belief that America’s tactical military superiority can achieve strategic ends in and of itself. But the strategic ends themselves are, in every case, fuzzy and dangerously optimistic—there is no consideration of worst-case scenarios or, for that matter, long-term interests.