What Are the Four Pillars of the “America First” Trump Doctrine?

U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)

President Donald Trump will unveil a new “America First” national security strategy on Monday, highlighting four main pillars that make up the Trump Doctrine. “Principled realism” emphasizes national sovereignty over foreign entanglements, wars and alliances. It also reverses competitive disadvantages from trade deals and puts U.S. economic security above alliances.

It also reverses the Obama Administration-era decision to designate climate change as an “urgent and growing threat to our national security.” It will stress the importance of environmental stewardship, but remove it from the field in which it historically has had no role.

The Trump Doctrine has four main pillars:

1. Protecting the homeland and way of life;
2. Promoting American prosperity;
3. Demonstrating peace through strength; and
4. Advancing American influence in an ever-competitive world.

“Principled realism takes a clear-eyed view of the threats we face,” a Trump Administration official said citing a document. “The strategy promotes a world that is free, with sovereign nations and diverse cultures with their own aspirations, respecting the rights of those nations to do so but also finding ways to promote American values.”

Realism, while it dominates other theories in the field of international relations, is scoffed at by D.C. elites and others in the think-tank bubble. Most push neoconservatism or international liberalism, both of which advocate using America power to push democratic values around the world.

The difference is the force used to do so.

By contrast, realism believes each nation acts rationally and speaks the language of power. It advocates the use of force only when there is a true vital threat to national security. China and Russia will be named “revisionist powers,” which aren’t enemies. They are nations attempting to change the status quo regarding the balance of power.

The document laying out the Trump Doctrine refers to China a “strategic competitor,” while it takes a much tougher stance against Russia.

The Trump Doctrine views the Middle East as a region will leaders emerging who are eager to promote U.S. interests and combat radical Islamic terrorism. It also views Iran as “the prime irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region.”

“Some of our partners are working together to reject radical ideologies and key leaders are calling for a rejection of Islamist extremism and violence,” the document reads. “Encouraging political stability and sustainable prosperity would contribute to dampening the conditions that fuel sectarian grievances.”

President Trump will address his recent historic decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the fulfillment of a 22-year old national promise. In 1995, Congress passed The Jerusalem Embassy and Relocation Act, which recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and called for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city.

“For generations the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been understood as the prime irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region,” the strategy document reads. “Today, the threats from radical jihadist terrorist organizations and the threat from Iran are creating the realization that Israel is not the cause of the region’s problems.”

For decades, U.S. presidents from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama all vowed to fulfill that promise on the trail and in office. But instead they issued waivers to postpone the implementation of the law. President Trump did so once over the summer while preparing for the decision, but viewed this to be the right time and called on other nations to do the same.

“States have increasingly found common interests with Israel in confronting common threats.”

As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) reported, Secretary Rex W. Tillerson said the State Department will “immediately” begin “preparations to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

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