Internationalism No. 81, November 2025 Page 13 From the series Chronicles of the new American nationalism With the slogan America First , Donald Trump evokes the past of American imperialism, more or less consciously recalling both the forces that, in the 1930s, advocated a foreign policy of hemispheric restraint and the era of undisputed American global primacy. He does so while bargaining with partners and adversaries alike over the degree of trade openness that the United States is willing to maintain, and while negotiating security guarantees with allies in Europe and Asia, without renouncing unilateral demonstrations of force in all directions. This aggressive posturing ranges from renaming the Pentagon the Department of War, to military operations against Iran and in Latin America, to increasing a military budget that is already by far the largest in the world. Kurt Campbell, co-founder of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), inspirer...