Economist Editor in Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes offered a scathing takedown of the “Trump Doctrine” of foreign policy in her weekly editor’s picks newsletter on Thursday.
“My note to you this week arrives on the verge of Donald Trump’s inauguration as America’s 47th president. Mr Trump’s critics have often accused him of buffoonery and isolationism. But even before he has taken the oath of office, Mr Trump has shown how much those words fall short,” Minton Beddoes began before adding:
He has helped secure a ceasefire in Gaza and shocked European politicians with a taboo-busting bid for control over Greenland. It’s already clear that the impact of Mr. Trump’s second term on the rest of the world will be both more disruptive and more consequential than his first. Mr. Trump is supplanting a vision of America’s role in the world that held sway since the second world war. Welcome, instead, to the Trump Doctrine.
Critics of Trump have long highlighted his isolationist tendencies, regular praise of dictators, and public barbs at key post-World War II institutions, like NATO and the United Nations.
Minton Beddoes underscored these concerns, adding, “Gone is the idea of America as the indispensable defender of democracy, settled borders and universal values. Mr Trump has little truck with alliances, multilateral rules or any other elements of what is often called the ‘post-war world order.’”
“Instead the Trump Doctrine is based on the belief that American strength, wielded in unorthodox and opportunistic ways, is the key to peace and prosperity. This approach, simultaneously swaggering and unpredictable, transactional and norm-busting, will be tested in three conflicts: the Middle East, Ukraine and America’s cold war with China. In some places, such as the Middle East, it may prove surprisingly successful,” she continued before offering an ominous warning:
But there are serious risks and worrying inconsistencies, especially over what the Trump Doctrine would mean for Taiwan. When the use of power is untethered from values, the result could be chaos on a global scale.
Minton Beddoes’s message to her readers should come as no surprise as The Economist endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in November – with a take that was much less about faith in Harris than it was a warning that Trump posed a “danger” to global security.
At the time, Minton Beddoes defended endorsing “underwhelming candidate” Harris by saying, “We have many readers who I think are going to vote for Donald Trump. We have Republican readers and Democrat readers, and we wanted to make the case that we think the risks posed by Donald Trump, a second term for Donald Trump, are unacceptably high, both for the US and for the world. And let me explain that, because I think many people think the case against President Trump is wildly overblown.”
