Donald Trump will be president for either 7½ more months or 4½ more years. The voters who support him will be around for much longer.
For students of U.S. foreign policy, this poses a question independent of Mr. Trump’s personality and political style: Is the gap between America’s post-World War II global strategy and the beliefs of the president’s base too wide to be bridged? Or is there a way to envision a global strategy for the U.S. that American populism can support?
Historically, the answer to the latter question has been yes. Jacksonians can be part of a stable political coalition that backs a global U.S. strategy. That was the normal condition during the Cold War, when Jacksonians were as loyal to Ronald Reagan as they are today to Mr. Trump. Though rarely enthusiastic about the United Nations, foreign aid or humanitarian interventions abroad, Jacksonians saw the Soviet Union and its communist ideology as a mortal threat to American freedom. Facing that danger, they were ready to do their part against the U.S.S.R.
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