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As anyone who watches reality television knows, the genre might be entertaining, but its correlation to actual reality is tenuous.

Which is a good place to start with the much-awaited foreign policy speech delivered Wednesday in Washington by presidential candidate Donald Trump.

As with The Apprentice, the show that helped him become a household name, the Republican front-runner sought to provide appealing fare for a certain class of people. In this case, the primary audience was voters opposed to trade, resentful of immigrants, distrustful of foreign governments, and wistful for a time when America wielded more power in a simpler world.

In reaching out to this group, Trump vividly portrayed a world that does not exist: America’s allies would be more respectful after being lectured to, while its enemies would be dealt with by bluster. China would fall into line after enduring unspecified economic pressure. And troubled regions of the world would be stabilized through U.S. disengagement.

Inexplicably, Trump declared that “America First” would be the overarching theme of his administration. A non-interventionist approach might have its merits in certain situations. But the America First movement got its name espousing an isolationist approach at exactly the wrong moment, urging the United States to stay out of World War II as Adolf Hitler was rampaging through Europe.

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Trump's secondary audience was the Washington establishment, the equivalent of TV critics. And the early reviews were harsh. On CNN, foreign policy experts Fareed Zakaria and David Rothkopf used the same word: incoherent. Fellow Republican Lindsey Graham tweeted, “Not sure who is advising Trump on foreign policy, but I can understand why he’s not revealing their names.”

In Trump’s worldview, things happen because he says they will. He made a number of proclamations to this effect. His unspecified plan to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group echoed Richard Nixon's secret plan in 1968 to win the Vietnam War. ISIL “will be gone if I’m elected president," Trump vowed, " And they'll be gone quickly. They will be gone very, very quickly.”

Things might happen that way on TV. But not in reality. Or perhaps we should say real reality.

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