Col. Macgregor: The Only Way Donald Trump Can Truly Put America First

by Douglas Macgregor
Oct. 12, 2018

Intentionally or not, President Donald Trump filled many of his top national security and foreign-policy positions with Neo-Wilsonian, Bush-Obama era Liberal Interventionists; an action that became a source of endless frustration for the president. On issues ranging from preventing transgender people from serving in the armed forces to disengaging US forces from Afghanistan and Syria , Trump's own national-security team has actively obstructed the president's defense- and foreign-policy agenda.

President Trump always wanted to disengage US forces from overseas commitments that in his view had no direct relation to American national security. Trump also rejected the alleged permanence of the postwar liberal order; an order that was dissolving when Clinton was in office. Instead, Trump sought to enhance American influence with economic strength by focusing on trade, job creation; enforcing the rule of law, immigration and border security.

On the economic front, President Trump broke through the opposition, reinvigorated America's stagnant economy and began changing the Cold War trade arrangements that favored foreign competitors and harmed American workers and businesses for decades. In Northeast Asia, he has defused the Korean Conflict and at this point it appears that the Korean Peninsula will no longer figure prominently in the US national military strategy.

However, President Trump's attempt to secure American borders, especially America's southern border has met with failure. The failure is tragic because violence inside Mexico has reached horrific dimensions.

The rule of law has collapsed. Mexicans of all ages are being killed so frequently that the number of homicides in 2018 will likely exceed last year's total of 29,168. According to Mexican authorities, drug-trafficking gangs pay around 1.27 billion pesos (some $100 million) a month in bribes to municipal police officers nationwide.

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