Pierre Atlas

From the time of the nation’s founding, presidents have articulated both American values and America’s national security interests in their foreign policy. What has varied has been the admixture of these two themes, with one often being stressed over the other in a given situation or historical era.

In many ways, President Donald Trump is unlike all past presidents­­, of any party. This is the case in foreign policy as well. He is the only president in American history who both openly rejects American values and also undermines America’s national security interests in the conduct of international affairs.

There has always been tension in U.S. foreign policy between two competing schools of thought: realism and idealism. Realism stresses the primacy of the national interest and national security in foreign policy, and focuses on the maintenance and expansion of power — particularly military power — as the best way to pursue those interests. Realists are sometimes willing to support regimes that don’t believe in our values, if doing so is in our interest. The U.S. did this during the Cold War by bolstering repressive regimes that were anti-communist, and all presidents have done so to some extent with oil-rich Saudi Arabia since 1945. But realists also seek alliances with other countries in order to balance the power of potential adversaries and believe that being a world leader is always in America’s best interest.

Idealism highlights the values of democracy, equality, and human rights. America’s particular brand of foreign policy idealism is inextricably linked to the concept of American Exceptionalism. America’s self-image, dating to the time of the Pilgrims, has been of a nation that is unique, embodied with a destiny to shed light unto the world; a beacon of freedom that attracts immigrants from all over. American leaders from various ideological and partisan perspectives — presidents as different at Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, for example — have stressed American values in their foreign policy rhetoric and actions.

American foreign policy is most successful when our values and our interests are in sync. World War II is a classic example: it was in America’s national security interests to defeat our enemies, Nazi Germany and the Japanese empire; and it was consistent with our democratic values to liberate millions of people under the yoke of totalitarian fascism. Another example is NATO: a military alliance of western democracies designed to check Russian aggression.

Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is not in the national interest. Trade wars with our friends will not just hurt American consumers and industries, but will damage alliances critical to our national security. And, ironically, in his putting America First, Trump never talks about American values or American exceptionalism. He is the first president since the end of World War II who has not actively supported the spread of democracy. Instead, he repeatedly attacks the democratically elected leaders of America’s strongest allies like the UK’s Theresa May, Germany’s Angela Merkel, and Canada’s Justin Trudeau, while openly siding with brutal, anti-American dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un — for whom he recently professed his “love.”

Trump continuously denigrates the institutions and checks and balances of American democracy and declares the free press to be “the enemy of the people.” On the same day that he finally acknowledged that Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. permanent resident and Washington Post columnist, had been killed in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, Trump publicly praised an American congressman for physically assaulting an American reporter. Is it any wonder that authoritarian regimes everywhere have taken Trump’s words and deeds to heart, crying “fake news” as they harass, jail, and even kill reporters?

For over seven decades, the American president has been viewed as “the leader of the free world.” But for the first time in our history, an American president is telling the world that authoritarianism may be better than democracy. Trump has no right to claim this title.

Pierre Atlas is professor of political science and director of The Richard G. Lugar Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian University. Follow him on Twitter: @PierreAtlas.