Donald Trump: Allies Must Bear the Cost of U.S. Defense

Due to “overwhelming demand,” Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech Wednesday was moved from the National Press Club to the larger venue at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

In his speech before The National Interest Magazine and its parent institution, The Center for the National Interest, and invited guests, the GOP presidential candidate leveled five criticisms of current American foreign policy:

• the nation’s resources are overextended;
• many of our allies aren’t paying their fair share;
• our friends fear they can’t depend on us;
• our rivals no longer respect us; and
• the country doesn’t have clear foreign policy goals.

“All of this is going to change when I am President,” he said. “America is going to be strong again. America is going to be a reliable friend and ally again.”

Trump said the defeat of ISIS would be a major foreign policy goal, saying the Islamist group’s “days are numbered.” He also pledged to rebuild the American military and economy—which he said are two vital pillars of a peaceful and secure world.

“We will spend what we need to rebuild our military,” he said. “Our military dominance must be unquestioned. We are also going to have to change our trade, immigration and economic policies to make our economy strong again—and to put Americans first again.”

Trump also declared U.S. foreign policy under President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, “reckless, rudderless, and aimless.” His international vision would be much more coherent, he said.

The Trump Plan would defeat radical Islam in the Middle East not through nation-building, but by focusing on stability in the region. He also noted that differences with China and Russia should be addressed by “seeking common ground” on shared interests.

“Our foreign policy goals must be based on America’s core national security interests,” he said. “My goal is to establish a foreign policy that will endure for several generations centered on prioritizing America first. Under a Trump administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released this statement following Trump’s speech:

Few speeches in campaign history have raised graver problems of public disclosure and accountability by a presidential candidate. Mr. Trump owes a full and immediate accounting to members of the media and the American public.

Mr. Trump must confirm or deny reports in the media that others in the Washington Cartel’s industry of foreign policy for personal gain were involved in the drafting of this address—indeed, were the principal authors. In addition to the authors of the speech, he must fully identify the role and involvement of Mr. Manafort who is widely recognized for his entanglements with corrupt foreign regimes and anti-Democratic rulers.

This speech is the most dramatic evidence thus far that Donald Trump fails the presidential test. With this address he is now the foreign policy candidate of the Washington lobbyists; even as he proclaims “America first,” he puts K Street lobbyists first. He is never going to fight the system; he is the system.

He and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. She has made her millions from inside, and Donald Trump has made his billions buying people like Hillary Clinton. Both are part of the culture of foreign policy for personal gain.