WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - National Security Matters: What is America First?

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Donald Trump won his second presidential race with the promise to put “America First.” Not only does this approach explain our domestic policy, it also guides our foreign policy.  Join Malia Thibado as she breaks down the three core tenants of what America First foreign policy means for us.

and welcome to National Security Matters. This year we discuss anything and everything related to U.S. international relations and defense policy. I'm your host, Malia Tibodeau. In light of the American foreign policy win, that is the current Gaza ceasefire. I want to do a review of what the administration calls its America first foreign policy strategy. I'd boil this down to three specific tenets. 1. Maximum pressure against our adversaries. Two, balanced contribution and accountability for our allies.

And three, deal-making whenever possible. So, maximum pressure originally described the first Trump administration's goals of blocking Iranian soft power influence and nuclear-economic buildup. After Biden took office, his administration actively diminished sanctions and awarded multiple waivers and sanctioned suspensions. When President Trump returned to office, he almost immediately reinstated the maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Now, his rhetoric of maximum pressure has expanded past Iran and now applies to all known U.S. adversaries, including non-state actors like the Houthies and drug cartels in South and Central America.

Venezuela and Colombia are the most recent targets of this maximum pressure campaign. They're both accused of being state sponsors of drug cartels, criminal organizations, many of whom were just as stated as terrorist organizations. As mentioned, Trump is adamant that our allies make balanced contributions to the many international organizations, mostly funded and defended by the U.S. A good example of this principle was summarized in a speech given by Vice President J.D. Vance during his visit to Munich this past February. He said, quote, as Trump has made abundantly clear,

he believes our European friends must play a bigger role in the future of this continent. We think it's an important part of being in a shared alliance together that the Europeans step up while Americans focus on parts of the worlds that are in great danger. And as of June 25th, during the 2025 NATO summit in the Netherlands, our allies committed to contributing 5% of their annual GDP toward defense spending by 2035. The U.S. has also participated in multiple bilateral negotiations with countries like South Korea and most recently Australia, where we reaffirmed our mutual defense pacts as well as our trade positions. The last and most controversial tenet of Trump's America first approach is his predilection for deals, even with named American adversaries,

despite the administration's fiery rhetoric against China, as in its Senate and House committees that nominally fight against Chinese influence and control in the U.S., like the CCP taking advantage of its research partnerships with U.S. universities, investigations and swath of CCP ownership of U.S. land, and the establishment of programs meant to bring Americans' talent to China. Despite these, Trump's done a lot of de-escalating and negotiations with Xi Jinping. The June trade deal between the U.S. and China decreased U.S. imports tariffs on China from 145 percent, to 30% with China's being reciprocally decreased to 10% and an opening of rare earth mineral trade from China to the US in exchange for America not revoking Chinese student visas.

While this is logical as a stop gap measure to while the US is securing other critical mineral deals to stop relying on China, many more were critical because of how plainly adversarial the US and China are. we use the same tactic as we did with Iran? With our economic power, couldn't we freeze them out of a lot of global trade and pressure them to decrease their economic and military aggression in Asia? The approach doesn't connect intuitively with the maximum pressure doctrine, creating confusion between people believing Trump isn't following through with his opposition to China. Overall, I would say the Trump administration's been pretty aggressive with his

foreign policy and despite what critics say have never kept their goals secret. This is Ben Malia Tibuto with National Security Matters on WRFH, Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.