You and me against the world: who was behind Trump's anti-Europe foreign policy?

"How do you create a foreign policy manifesto for a US president who leads from the gut? The initial draft fell to Michael Anton, a Maga firebrand whom officials have called the lead author behind the US's radical new national security strategy (NSS). The document shocked US allies, warning that immigration to Europe would cause civilizational erasure, reviving the Monroe doctrine in the western hemisphere, and downgrading the US's responsibility for great power competition with China and Russia."

"Anton, the former director of policy planning at the state department, had previously gained widespread attention in 2016 when he compared the impending elections to a hijacked airliner in which conservatives must radically shake up US politics and reject the pro-immigration stances that were the mark of a party, a society, a country, a people, a civilization that wants to die."

"It is no surprise, then, that the recent NSS, usually a ponderous document weighed down by carefully measured bureaucratic-speak, landed like a bombshell. While it survived a tortured bureaucratic process from the state department to Trump's senior advissrs and was released to little fanfare last week, some of the recommendations were radical enough to cause European leaders to say that the US's Euroscepticism had now become official doctrine."

A draft national security strategy from a MAGA-aligned official advocates immigration warnings, revives the Monroe doctrine, and reduces US responsibility in competition with China and Russia. The document characterizes immigration to Europe as causing civilizational erasure and recommends downgrading active US engagement in great-power rivalry. The draft survived bureaucratic review and was released with little fanfare despite radical recommendations that alarmed European leaders and prompted claims that US Euroscepticism had become official policy. The approach reflects revolutionary aims to overturn postwar bipartisan foreign policy and reshape US international priorities. Comparisons to 2016 election metaphors underline the urgency proponents assign to the proposed changes.

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