Donald Trump Was Never an Isolationist

"But one occurred during the 2016 Republican primary debate in South Carolina, when Trump addressed the prickly issue of the Iraq War. It had been a "big, fat mistake," he charged. And the politicians who started it? "They lied." The audience hated this. Trump's fellow-debaters Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio argued that George W. Bush—Jeb's brother—had kept the country safe. Trump plowed on loudly through the booing."

"(When asked, in the run-up to the invasion, whether he supported it, he replied, "Yeah, I guess so.") But by 2004 he truly was opposed. He scoffed at the notion that the war would achieve anything. What was the point of "people coming back with no arms and legs" and "all those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces?" he asked. "All of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong.""

"Skepticism came easily to Trump, who had long been hostile to mainstream foreign policy. He made his political début, in 1987, by taking out full-page ads in several papers to complain of Washington's 'monumental spending' on defense for allies like Japan and Saudi Arabia. The foundations of U.S. supremacy since 1945—the aid packages, alliances, trade pacts, and basing arrangements that make up what the former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates calls the 'symphony of power'—have all seemed to Trump like a colossal waste."

A defining 2016 debate moment had Trump call the Iraq War a "big, fat mistake" and accuse its initiators of lying. He did not oppose the invasion at the outset but by 2004 rejected the war, questioning its human cost and arguing its reasons were blatantly wrong. Longstanding skepticism toward mainstream foreign policy shaped his outlook, including 1987 full-page ads criticizing Washington's "monumental spending" on allied defense. He regards the post‑1945 architecture of U.S. supremacy—aid, alliances, trade pacts, basing arrangements—as wasteful. Critics call him isolationist, though his use of force in multiple countries complicates that label.

Read at The New Yorker