"Fully seven pages of the short (33 pages as compared to Trump's 68-page 2017 NSS and Sleepy Joe Biden's 48-page 2022 one) document blather about what it is trying to accomplish: two pages announcing the adoption of utilitarianism over values, two laying out what the US should want, another laying out what Trump thinks the US wants from the world, and two more laying out what means the US has to get there."
"Effectively, Donald Trump has already done significant, if not grave, damage to six of the ten things that Trump claims America wants: Continued survival of US sovereignty Protect the country from human trafficking, foreign influence, propaganda, and espionage "A resilient national infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters, resist and thwart foreign threat" The most dynamic economy A robust industrial base Unrivaled soft power that "believe[s] in our country's inherent greatness and decency")"
"Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Elon Musk spent the first six months of this Administration trashing America's soft power. These boys seem to imagine they can replace it with something that "believe[s] in our country's inherent greatness and decency." Except no one else will believe in American decency after it suddenly withdrew funding that resulted in the deaths of 600,000 people, two thirds of them children."
The National Security Strategy is 33 pages, shorter than Trump's 2017 68-page and Biden's 2022 48-page strategies. Seven pages explicitly outline goals, embracing utilitarianism over values, defining national wants, describing what Trump believes the US wants globally, and listing means to achieve those ends. The strategy projects corrective competence over predecessors, but that articulation exposes failures that have undermined six of ten stated national objectives: sovereignty survival, protection from trafficking and foreign influence, resilient infrastructure, a dynamic economy, a robust industrial base, and unrivaled soft power. Actions that removed funding contributed to mass deaths and eroded international trust.
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