The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Jacksonian Foreign Policy (With a Twist)

Starting point is 00:00:00 I've characterized as Walter Russell Mead most famously that Trump's foreign policy is neither interventionist, surely not nation-building, nor is it isolationist as the left accuses. It was something called Jacksonian, that is, no better friend, no worse enemy, don't tread on me. I think there's a quirk to Jacksonianism, a subset, and I would call the Trump foreign policy, the vice policy, V-I-S-E, like a vice that you clamp down on something. By that, I mean, rather than intervene or even use kinetic force, he has another alternative. When he sees a renegade country, we're going to have a Trump vice, and it's going to squeeze. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. In the past, I've characterized as Walter Reuters,

Starting point is 00:00:57 Russell Meade most famously that Trump's foreign policy is neither interventionist, surely not nation-building, nor is it isolationist, as the left accuses. It was something called Jacksonian. That is, no better friend, no worse enemy, don't tread on me. At various times, if people took advantage of the United States' desire to live in peace and they started to push their luck, then we would hit them overwhelmingly. Sort of what we saw with the two Americans who were tragically killed in Syria, then there was an overwhelming retaliation. But there's a, I think there's a quirk to Jacksonianism, a subset, and I would call the Trump foreign policy, the vice policy, V-I-S-E, like a vice that you clamp down on something. By that, I mean, rather than intervene

Starting point is 00:01:49 or even use kinetic force, he has another alternative when he sees a renegade country. Most famously, we saw Iran that when he came into office, the first thing he did was get back out of the Iran deal, put back the sanctions, support Israel's effort to retaliate against Iran. Although he did take out the nuclear facilities, that was a act that he felt he had no choice because Iran was reaching a point where they'd have a nuclear weapon. But up until then, he had almost bankrupt again by squeezing. the Iran economy at no cost to the United States. We see that much better with Venezuela and the rogue Maduro government, the illegitimate government that throughout the last elections in which Maduro lost and has been sending shiploads of narcotics to the United States. It's using embargo to oil, tankers to sell sanctioned oil to Cuba, to China, and more or less opened up its

Starting point is 00:02:55 jails and mental institutions and sent thousands of people in spite to the United States. So Trump is now reestablishing the Monroe doctor. Remember Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Monroe doctrine was pretty much ossified, calcified. Trump has reinstated it, but with a vice policy. So sanctions on Maduro, he's not going to have any income through narco sales. we're blowing up narco-terrorist shipments on the high seas. He uses that money to bribe officers, bribe the media, bribe the opposition to stay in power illegitimately. And then in addition to that, he'll have no oil income. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. So he has a limitless supply of credit and cash, but not if he can't get it to somewhere. And in the Western

Starting point is 00:03:52 hemisphere, Trump is showing the world that he just almost automatically reestablished the Monroe doctor. What is China going to do? They may say they have a blue water navy. They may say they're catching up, but they're not there yet, and they have no ability to transmit power in the western hemisphere among our shores. So Maduro is in a vice, and we're squeezing it down at no cost to us. Is he going, is Trump going to invade? I doubt it. Is he going to bomb? I doubt it. I think he's just slowly going to intimidate Maduro so people within the Venezuelan hierarchy, both legitimate opponents and opportunistic supporters who feel that he's a bad investment and they will throw him out. The same thing is true of Cuba. We didn't really know how to deal with Cuba since 1959. We've

Starting point is 00:04:44 had embargoes, sometimes they're liquid, sometimes they're fluid. They don't really work. But more or less, the Castroite government in Cuba is an existential enemy of the United States. We have a lot of people who go there and visit, but the country has never worked. It's impoverished. And it's dependent wholly on the legacy of Hugo Chavez and now Maduro to give them cheap oil. If they don't get cheap oil, and that is, what do I mean by that? If Maduro cannot put embargoed oil on sanctioned tankers and get to Cuba, then Cuba is going to have no ability to distill gasoline, nor it will have energy.

Starting point is 00:05:26 And that's exactly what is happening. The Cuban economy is in a Trump vice. Are we going to bomb Cuba? No. Are we going to have a bay of pigs standoff or invasion? No. Are we going to have a Cuban missile crisis with China? No.

Starting point is 00:05:42 We're going to have a Trump vice, and it's going to squeeze. Does this work all the time? No. I mean, it doesn't work in case of a full-fledged war, like the Ukraine war or the Middle East sometimes, but with other powers in our vicinity that we have leverage over, we're going to start to squeeze them to bring back legitimate government, pro-American governments, and stability for the entire Western Hemisphere, and most importantly, a chance for their citizenry to have a normal life. Thank you very much.

Starting point is 00:06:16 This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily. Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Jacksonian Foreign Policy (With a Twist)

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