America First — it all depends on the day

Winnipeg Free Press

5 hours ago

Opinion
When faced with making a major decision or delivering important legislation, U.S. President Donald Trump has a well-documented penchant for promising all will be accomplished in a proverbial 'two weeks.' And nearly every time he has made this declaration — about, for example, new tax legislation and a revamped health-care plan during his first term and more recently, ending the Russia-Ukraine war — 14 days later, no decisions have been made and no legislation has been forthcoming.
Hence, his pronouncement on June 19 that he would decide whether to approve bombing Iran's key nuclear sites within two weeks was met with the usual eye-rolling and sarcastic tittering. Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel ran a hilarious compilation of many of Trump's two-week declarations. 'He lies a lot,' said Kimmel. 'So who the hell knows what he's going to do.'
Lo and behold, on June 21, Trump made a decision and U.S. B-2 bombers dropped massive bombs at three nuclear facilities. Trump immediately claimed the bombing 'completely and fully obliterated' Iran's nuclear program. That now seems unlikely, according to a classified U.S. intelligence report leaked to the press.
Iran's program, the report noted, has been set back by months, but more than likely has not been eliminated. Predictably, the White House declared that assessment 'flat-out wrong.'
Trump has never been consistent. No matter: the fact this military action does not fit into the isolationist 'America First' platform he campaigned on has already been rationalized away by diehard MAGA Republicans. The majority of them have perceived it as a one-time offensive intrusion into world affairs, an action outside the self-contained U.S. bubble. And that seems to be the case.
Iran retaliated on June 23, by launching missiles at an American military base in Qatar, but air defense systems intercepted them before they did any damage. According to news reports, Iran informed officials in Qatar of the impending attack, which suggests Iran does not want to get into an all-out war with the U.S.
And Trump said he won't retaliate.
Early on June 24, Trump declared Iran and Israel had agreed to a cease-fire, yet both countries continued to attack each other, raising Trump's ire. By the end of the day, the fighting seemed to have stopped and the 'fragile cease-fire,' as the New York Times called it, appears to be holding — at least for the moment.
As pragmatic — and, dare I say, strategically necessary — as was Trump's decision to try to stop the ruthless Iranian regime from becoming a nuclear power and to force cease-fire, it does not discount how, in less than six months, Trump has upended the military and economic alliances and policies that have effectively governed world affairs since the end of the Second World War.
Yes, the so-called 'Cold War' between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union was a dangerous era of nuclear brinksmanship that nearly started a third world war. But that war did not happen; instead, the U.S. initiated the Marshall Plan to rebuild of war-torn western Europe, which led to decades of economic prosperity.
Advances in technology had a generally positive impact on people's lives, and the defeat of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the militaristic Empire of Japan was a boon for the spread of democracy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. president during the 1930s and the Second World War, was keen to aid Britain before and after the war started in September 1939, but he was hamstrung by the same kind of isolationist 'America First' policy that Trump so proudly touts. Until, that is, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
There were periods in the 1890s, and during the last 18 months of the First World War, when the U.S. was active in world affairs. But for the most part, from the American Revolution to December 1941, the country's leaders were determined to stay out of European entanglements.
That dictum was established by president George Washington, who said in his 1796 farewell address, 'The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, (and) to have with them as little political connection as possible.'
More than a century later, during the November 1916 presidential campaign, incumbent Democrat candidate Woodrow Wilson used the slogan 'America First,' promising to keep the U.S. out of the First World War. That did not happen, as Germany's foolish decision to offer — in the Zimmermann telegram — to assist Mexico to reclaim territory lost to the Americans compelled Wilson to obtain Congress's support to enter the war, as is required by the U.S. constitution.
Trump did not seek congressional approval for the military action against Iran, though such approval is (probably) required by the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
After the First World War ended, the 'America First' policy kicked in again. The Republican-controlled senate ensured the U.S. was not part of the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations, established to promote world peace. Without American support, the League faltered badly, allowing Mussolini, Hitler and Japan's leaders to do pretty well as they wanted until Britain finally took action against Hitler in September 1939.
A lot of Americans, including famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, a supporter of the 'America First Committee,' had no problem with that. In a controversial speech in Des Moines, Iowa in September 1941, Lindbergh blamed FDR and his administration and the 'British and Jewish races' for deceiving the American public with war propaganda.
Despite the praise Trump has received from several world leaders, most Republicans and even some Democrats for ordering the strike on Iran and negotiating a cease-fire, he remains the erratic and unpredictable would-be authoritarian he always has been.
Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.