WAX: A Foreign Policy Revolution Within Trump’s Republican Party

The most significant transformation of Republican policy over the past 15 years, and one that is not talked about nearly enough, pertains to foreign affairs. National populists within the Republican Party today embrace more of a non-interventionist foreign policy—one that is closer to what was previously articulated by a minor but vocal fringe of libertarians within the Republican Party in the past. This represents a drastic departure from the neoconservative orthodoxy of the Bush years.

Neoconservatism can be defined as a globalist, cosmopolitan ideology that pushes for open borders in the homeland, ceaseless foreign intervention abroad, and hefty deficit spending to fund a massive permanent bureaucracy. Neoconservative policies were never inherently popular among the Republican constituents, but they were accepted because they were cloaked in the flag and wrapped in a veneer of Christian moral sentiment. Republicans accepted neoconservatism because they believed the increase in government power was justified due to external threats, such as radical Islamic terrorism. Neoconservatives also pushed a gay marriage ban that they knew was doomed to fail simply to placate conservatives who wanted traditional values. Due to the abject failure of neoconservative ideology and the rise of Donald Trump, Republicans are no longer susceptible to neoconservative trickery.

Because of the political shift underway, many prominent neoconservatives have openly changed their party affiliation and become Democrats. These neoconservatives, who once acted like they had right-wing beliefs and traditional values, are now open leftists, showing that their only allegiances were to the war machine. The shapeshifting operatives have been gifted prestigious positions of authority within the Democrat apparatus for their newfound loyalties. This helps to explain why Republicans are becoming more openly non-interventionist while the Democrats are becoming more warmongering and belligerent in their approach to foreign affairs.

The intellectual leader of the neoconservative movement is Bill Kristol. Kristol’s father, Irving, was dubbed the “godfather of neoconservatism,” and his son became an influential commentator in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, advocating for wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Kristol’s ideology began falling out of favor in Republican circles with the rise of the Tea Party movement in the late 2000s and early 2010s. When Trump became the standard-bearer for Republicans in 2016, Kristol and his ideological partners were out in the lurch and began openly working for the Democrat cause.

Kristol’s anti-Trump fronts, including Defending Democracy Together and Republicans for the Rule of Law, have been bankrolled by eBay founder and progressive financier Pierre Omidyar. Prominent neoconservative political operatives have been rewarded with prestigious positions in the Biden Administration. Biden nominated former Bush advisor Jamie Fry as a Member of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board of the United States Agency for Global Media. After serving in the Bush administration, Fry went on to cofound the Hamilton 68 dashboard, a fraudulent effort that falsely labeled conservative Twitter accounts as Russian bots to compel draconian censorship and quash their free—if contrarian—speech.

Biden also appointed former Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, who was convicted but later pardoned over his role in the infamous Iran/Contra affair, to the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Abrams was seen as an unabashedly hawkish Republican, supporting every military intervention pushed by Republican and Democrat presidential administrations alike. However, he expressed his dismay with President Trump even after he wormed his way into his administration, where he sabotaged Trump’s Venezuelan policy, leading to the worst strategic failure of Trump’s presidency.

It was previously unfathomable that neocons could worm their way into the Democrat Party fold, as even the more hawkish members of the Democrat Party would never couch their beliefs in such bellicose, aggressive rhetoric. But it is the desperation of the Democrats that has made them gleefully make a deal with the devil in order to stop a charismatic and debonair political figure in Donald Trump that rivals any leader currently on the world stage. This alliance may help them in the short term, but as the U.S. Empire crumbles, as foreign military adventures become egregious failures, and as geopolitical foes become stronger as a result, this will mean long-term peril for the Democrats and give the America First Republicans an advantage in the decades to come by jettisoning the putrid baggage remaining from the Bush era.

The Neocons and their ideological brethren that remain within the Republican Party are happy to paint the rise of Trump-ism as something that is foul, crude, and reactionary, often using the direct talking points of liberals in order to suppress the rise of America First thinking. They do this out of the need for self-preservation because if Trump-ism becomes more coherent and a noninterventionist foreign policy is realized, these neocons will be out of business, the war machine will be broken, and the defense contractors that subsidize this morally and ethically bankrupt philosophy will take their money elsewhere. This is the challenge of the America First grassroots – to toss neoconservatism into the dustbin of history and do whatever it takes to ensure it stays buried.