‘America first’ vs. ‘America last’: What does Trump’s return mean for US foreign policy?

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House next month, what sort of foreign policy can Americans expect during his second stint in the Oval Office?

Trump will pursue an “America first foreign policy,” J. Michael Waller, senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, suggested during an interview with Fox News Digital, describing Biden’s approach as “America last.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is advocating for the soon-to-be commander in chief to significantly increase military spending in a bid to build up the nation’s “hard power.”

The long-serving lawmaker is also warning against an isolationist approach to foreign policy, asserting in a piece on Foreign Affairs that “the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation.”

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., takes a question from a reporter during a news conference following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 19, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“Trump would be wise to build his foreign policy on the enduring cornerstone of U.S. leadership: hard power. To reverse the neglect of military strength, his administration must commit to a significant and sustained increase in defense spending, generational investments in the defense industrial base, and urgent reforms to speed the United States’ development of new capabilities and to expand allies’ and partners’ access to them,” McConnell contended.

“To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries’ global designs,” he argued.

Waller, who authored the book “Big Intel,” explained that America-first foreign policy does not mean isolationism. 

“It means for the United States to define its national interests very strictly,” without suggesting that every crisis around the globe is “of vital, existential interest to our country,” he noted.

Waller opined in Foreign Affairs that McConnell was seeking to “maintain the uniparty consensus for the United States’ present global commitments that are stretching us beyond our means … without even stepping back to reassess what is really in our national interests and how can we best marshal our resources to ensure them.”

Fox News Digital attempted to reach out to request comment from McConnell, but did not receive a response.

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Trump has tapped Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state, a choice Waller graded as a “really good pick.” 

Regarding the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, Rubio has said that the U.S. is funding a “stalemate war.”

Trump has called for a ceasefire.

“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse,” he declared in a post on Truth Social.

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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Trump has also called for the release of hostages in the Middle East, warning in a post on Truth Social that if they are not released by when he assumes office, “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” he declared.