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For more than a generation, American presidents talked about leadership while quietly surrendering leverage, sovereignty and deterrence. President Donald Trump is doing something different — and the foreign-policy establishment is still struggling to catch up.
Call it the Donroe Doctrine: a modern, hard-edged update of the Monroe Doctrine in which American power is unapologetically asserted, adversaries are confronted rather than managed and allies are expected to defend themselves. Since re-entering office, Trump has struck Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, forced NATO allies to rearm, challenged China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific and reasserted U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, from Greenland to Venezuela.
To critics, these moves look erratic. Read alongside Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the newly released 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS), however, they reveal something else entirely: a doctrine grounded in hard realism, national sovereignty and old-fashioned power politics. The Donroe Doctrine is not improvisation. It reflects deliberate choices.
America First, redefined
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A B-21 took flight near Edwards Air Force base in September 2025. (Air Force )
The Donroe Doctrine begins with a rejection of the post–Cold War assumption that America must solve every global problem to remain secure. The 2025 NSS warns that previous administrations expanded the definition of U.S. national interest so broadly that “to focus on everything is to focus on nothing,” arguing instead for a hard narrowing of what truly matters.
Under this approach, national security is defined narrowly and deliberately: defending the homeland, securing borders, protecting the economy and preserving U.S. sovereignty. This helps explain why Trump treats border security as national security, why he rejects open-ended global commitments and why he views economic strength and industrial capacity as central to power rather than ignored.
Peace through strength — not endless war
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Trump’s critics accuse him of recklessness. His strategy documents tell a different story. The NSS makes clear a predisposition to non-interventionism, while insisting on a high bar for the use of force. The NDS puts that idea into practice: force exists to deter, to compel and — when necessary — to strike decisively in defense of vital interests, not to conduct ideological crusades or nation-building campaigns.
In Iran’s case, Trump treats the regime as a proliferation and coercion problem, not a nation-building project. Besides, his threats and strikes are finite, conditional and interest-bound — a case study in enforcement, not escalation.
That helps explain why Trump could authorize strikes against Iran’s nuclear program while simultaneously pushing diplomatic settlements elsewhere. In the Donroe Doctrine, overwhelming strength creates space for diplomacy; weakness invites escalation.
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China as the pacing threat
The central threat in the Donroe Doctrine is clear, it is this: China is the “pacing threat.”
Smoke rises from Fort Tiuna, the main military garrison in Caracas, Venezuela, after multiple explosions were heard and aircraft swept through the area, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Both the NSS and NDS identify the People’s Republic of China as the only power capable of contesting U.S. military, economic and technological dominance on a global scale. The NDS is explicit — China’s military buildup, industrial capacity and regional ambitions define the tempo of U.S. defense planning.
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Importantly, Trump’s doctrine does not frame conflict with China as inevitable. The goal is not regime change, humiliation or economic strangulation. It is denial — preventing Beijing from dominating the Indo-Pacific and coercing U.S. allies. Deterrence by denial along the First Island Chain, allied burden-sharing and U.S. industrial rearmament sit at the center of this approach.
Keep in mind, Trump seeks to bound China’s power, not to break China’s system. This is competition with rules — not containment without limits. As a result, Trump stresses that trade and diplomacy with China remain possible because deterrence is credible.
This is balance-of-power thinking, stripped of post–Cold War illusions.
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Allies as partners, not dependents
The doctrine is most visible in Trump’s handling of alliances. His demand that NATO allies dramatically increase defense spending is not rhetorical bluster; it reflects the NDS’ warning about a growing “simultaneity problem,” in which multiple adversaries could act at once across different theaters.
The solution is not endless U.S. deployments, but capable allies who can defend their own regions with limited American support. Europe, Trump argues, has the wealth and population to deter Russia. Israel is cited in the NDS as a model ally because it defends itself. Burden-sharing is not punishment — it is the price of credibility.
Given China’s rapid naval expansion, restoring American deterrence in the Indo-Pacific ultimately comes down to shipbuilding — more hulls in the water, faster production and shipyards capable of sustaining a prolonged competition at sea.
Geography matters again
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) greets Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (2R) and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov (R) look on during their meeting in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, May 8, 2015. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)
The Donroe Doctrine also restores geography to the center of U.S. strategy. The NDS calls for enforcing a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, denying hostile powers control over strategic terrain in the Western Hemisphere.
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Greenland, the Panama Canal, maritime approaches and cartel-dominated regions are treated not as peripheral concerns, but as vital interests. Trump’s high-profile confrontation over Greenland — and his announcement of a “framework of a future deal” with NATO — follows this logic directly.
Power built at home
Finally, the Donroe Doctrine recognizes a truth forgotten since World War II: wars are won by production. Both strategies elevate the defense industrial base to strategic priority, tying economic security directly to military readiness.
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Re-shoring industry, securing critical supply chains, expanding energy production and scaling munitions are not merely economic policies. They are instruments of deterrence.
A Doctrine Takes Shape
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Read together, Trump’s NSS and NDS outline a governing philosophy that is hard-headed without being reckless, nationalist without retreating from the world and forceful without drifting into endless war. The Donroe Doctrine rejects utopian idealism in favor of hard choices, clear priorities, and unapologetic American power — especially in the face of a rising China.
It unsettles Washington precisely because it restores clarity. The doctrine is stabilizing because red lines are explicit and priorities are narrow. But it is also dangerous, especially for adversaries — because ambiguity is gone, free-riding is exposed and miscalculations become far more costly.