Donald Trump outlined a foreign policy vision Wednesday that placed American interests first, and paired a reluctance to employ military force with a hard-edged ability to negotiate agreements with long-standing foes.

But the remarks, delivered in Washington off of a teleprompter for 40 minutes, also exposed a series of contradictions in the approach of the Republican presidential front-runner that will only continue to raise questions about his readiness to be commander-in-chief.

Trump lambasted President Barack Obama for overextending U.S. military resources abroad without a clear-eyed purpose or strategy. He also said the Obama administration's fecklessness gave the Islamic State group the space to grow and prosper.

But moments later, he sent conflicting signals about his own prescriptions for confronting the world's most notorious terrorist organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

While he promised "ISIS will be gone if I'm elected president," he also said he was not inclined to deploy U.S. troops for combat.

"Unlike other candidates for the presidency, war and aggression will not be my first instinct," he said.

He complained that Obama abandoned key allies around the world, instead bowing to adversaries.

"We've let our rivals and challengers think they can get away with anything. And they do," he said.

But he went on to demand new financial obligations from U.S. global partners – "Our allies are not paying their fair share," he said – while opening the door to fostering better relations with antagonists like Russia and China.

"I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia ... is possible, absolutely possible," he said.

In one breath, Trump said the U.S. must be prepared to let allied countries defend themselves. In another, he lamented that Obama had made it so "friends think they can't depend on us."

"America is going to be reliable again. It's going to be a great and reliable ally again," he said. "We're going to finally have a coherent foreign policy."

But Kori Schake, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, says Trump's speech was anything but coherent.

"It was complete nonsense. I stopped counting contradictions at eight," Schake tells U.S. News, allowing an audible sigh over the phone. "I think he has no idea what he's talking about. The speech was a collection of all of the worst ideas that have come out of the last two administrations and jumbling them all together."

Trump did seem to seek distance from the foreign policy doctrines of both Obama and former President George W. Bush, saying the country veered badly off course after the end of the Cold War due to "foolishness and arrogance."

But if the goal was to establish some sort of tangible third way to handle global affairs, he left himself wide open to critics from both sides.

Trump said he would construct a long-term plan to contain the spread and reach of radical Islam, but stopped short of specifics and strongly suggested America would only wage the fight with allies at its side.

"No longer one-way, it's now two-way. ... We're going to help, but they have to appreciate what we've done for them," he said.

He restated his call to halt allowing Muslims into the country in order to "stop importing extremism" that has led to horrors like the San Bernardino, California, shootings.

He promised to rebuild a shrunken U.S. Navy and Air Force, but left to the imagination by how much, as well as the means by which he would pay for it.

And while Trump consistently has stressed his ability to negotiate deals, he articulated his skepticism of international pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement "that tie us up and bring America down."

"We will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs," he said.

Wednesday's presentation did not reveal a doctrine rooted in interventionism or isolationism as much as in Trumpism – a unique combination of impulses that tugs at hearts more than it can be comprehended in minds.

"This is not a thinking man's speech," Steve Clemons, Washington editor at large of The Atlantic, said on MSNBC afterward. "It was kind of a bizarre mish-mash of various things, but he made very clear that the United States is all about the United States and when other nations hear that, there's not a lot of place for them to think that we're going to be there for them in their time of need."

If nothing else, the address showcased a more subdued and disciplined Trump – likely a result of the setting, the script, the gravity of the subject and his preeminent position in the Republican race.

His prior and more provocative mentions of encouraging Japan and South Korea to obtain nuclear weapons and deploying tens of thousands of troops to fight the Islamic State group were nowhere to be found in this speech.

Trump instead pledged he would only use military force "if we have a plan for victory," which he did not detail in regard to the quagmires in Iraq or Syria. He never even mentioned Afghanistan.

Schake rendered it utterly impossible to evaluate Trump's worldview, due to his litany of discrepancies.

"He's deeply critical of Obama's passivity in foreign policy. And yet he argues for even greater restraint. He says abandoning allies will somehow make them do more. Or that we need to be a force for stability in the Middle East, but we're not going to do any more national building, which of course is essential for nations in transition," she says. "He believes Americans don't care about our role in the world, so he's just throwing confetti in the air and banking on people not being worried about how reckless this is."

Trump on Wednesday said he challenged anyone to explain the strategic foreign policy vision of Obama and Hillary Clinton.