ABSTRACT
Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2017. The domestic economy was performing well on the back of six years of uninterrupted GDP growth and an unemployment rate at its pre-Global Financial Crisis level. Trump, however, had been elected on a ‘Make America Great Again’ platform based on the idea that the USA was in decline. At the international level, the USA continued to be involved in military conflicts in the Greater Middle East and was embroiled in several disputes with Russia, but there was no direct military threat to the USA. Nonetheless, Trump had been elected on an ‘America First’ platform based on a defence of US interests, non-interventionism and redirecting spending towards the USA. 1 Put together, Trump’s domestic and foreign policy priorities suggested that Washington would shift its foreign policy actions towards unilateralism and the clear prioritization of US interests and goals.
