The Dark Heart of Trump’s Foreign Policy
About this episode
Zakaria attempts to define the Trump doctrine: a rejection of the post-1945 open international system, which Trump views as a racket in which America was the sucker. He argues Trump's affinity runs toward strongmen — Putin, Xi, Modi, Orban, Erdogan — reflecting an ideological kinship with illiberal regimes over liberal allies, producing a 'war on allies' through tariffs and humiliation. On Ukraine, he says Trump treats Russian territorial claims as broadly legitimate; on China, Trump surprisingly wants a deal (the TikTok reversal); on Gaza, Trump's annexation proposal emboldened Israeli extremists. Zakaria is scathing on the USAID destruction — 1 percent of the budget, mostly food and medicine — as a signal that foreign lives now count for nothing, gutting American soft power. Klein presses whether Biden fumbled by refusing to use leverage; Zakaria replies that transactional bullying wins headlines but destroys the 80-year alliance relationships that made American power durable.