The old adage is that personnel is policy reigns supreme. These are not nameless, faceless bureaucrats but policy specialists who brief Trump on emerging crises and attend his meetings with world leaders. It's a mixed bag.
Key foreign policy influencers in the current Trump administration include a mix of cabinet-level officials, advisers, and policy professionals, and a collection of sycophants, most of whom represent a hawkish and "America First" approach. Below is a list of some of the most significant figures shaping U.S. foreign policy under Trumps second term
These individuals collectively shape a foreign policy characterized by a prioritization of military strength, transactional diplomacy, reduced multilateral engagement, and a focus on great power competition, especially with China and distain for liberal international norms. Many of them are informed by fundamentalist christian dogma.
The Assistant and Deputy Secretary-level appointees, who have been delegated greater power in regional and topical portfolios under the administrations reorganization.
A fundamentalist is a person or group that adheres strictly to a set of core principles, often a religious text or ideology, and believes in its absolute correctness and inerrancy. They typically emphasize a literal interpretation of their beliefs and often reject secular modernity, new interpretations, and alternative viewpoints, seeking to preserve traditional values. The term originated in the early 20th-century American Protestant movement but now applies to various religious, ideological, and even non-religious movements, though it is often associated with negative connotations such as close-mindedness or extremism.
Truth for these advisors is their truth. Their truth is whatever "the Boss" says it is. Frequently their truth has no relation to any objective or scientific truth.
The Trumpist ideology provides fuel for the political engine but it will inexorably lead to grievous policy errors and bad actions of all manner, shape and kind. Grievous in the biblical sense means bad deeds that go beyond mere criminality and into the world of cruelty. Separating children from parents for example.
Foreign Policy: Ideology Is the Key to Understanding Trumps Foreign Policy,
Chaotic actions abroad are driven by deeply held beliefs in the administration.
