On isolationism, nationalism and U.S.-Mexico Border Wall: Understanding the Trump-Putin-Maduro triangle

Since the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has been supported by the non-interventionist and isolationist circles in the United States. As a foreign policy stance, ‘America First’ has historically referred to nationalism and protectionism. It is best known as the slogan of the America First Committee, a non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. The use of the slogan by Trump’s team and cabinet has been controversial because of its historical association with nativism, racism and antisemitism. Both isolationism and non-interventionism have had a long history among elite and popular opinion in the United States.

Donald Trump’s stance on interventionism is very complex, and demands a deep analysis of every sentence in its context. Despite Trump’s rhetoric in the 2016 election campaign that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan should be terminated and his recent decision to withdraw American troops from Germany and the Middle East — reducing them from 34,500 to 25,000, in the case of Germany — , Donald Trump has declared that he is not an isolationist. Columnist Daniel Larison (The American Conservative) has argued that Donald Trump is never committed to ending U.S. involvement in any other conflict; his complaint about the…