Patrick Porter — Donald Trump hasn’t changed America’s grand global strategy – and he won’t

The bottom line about this presidency so far is that even though candidate Trump threatened to govern as an “isolationist”, President Trump is doing no such thing. For all that he threatened to tear up alliances, wind up nation-building wars, and tolerate or even encourage nuclear proliferation, his administration is fundamentally doubling down on “primacy” – the idea that the US should secure a position of global dominance. And as a brief tour through theatres long classed as critical power centres by American governments reveals, the same old pattern is holding....

The upshot is that Trump has not altered the general architecture of America’s power position. Change is possible, but only through the combination of shocks severe enough to challenge the status quo, and only with a president willing to bear the costs of overhauling it. Until then, the fundamental principle of American primacy is here to stay. Trump has not deviated from America’s commitment to primacy. Rather, in brazen terms, he offers primacy without euphemism.

Judging by increases in military spending, I'd say that DJT is doubling down on global dominance.
The Conversation
Donald Trump hasn’t changed America’s grand global strategy – and he won’t
Patrick Porter | Professor of International Security and Strategy, University of Birmingham