GOP frontrunner Donald Trump delivered an “America First” nationalist-themed foreign policy speech while criticizing President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“My foreign policy will always put the interest of the American people and America security above all else,” Trump told the audience at the Mayflower hotel in Washington, D.C. “That will be the foundation of every single decision I will make.”
“America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration,” the Republican frontrunner added.
Trump argued that after the Cold War, America’s foreign policy “veered badly off course,” saying, “Logic was replaced with foolishness and arrogance, and this led to one foreign policy disaster after another.”
“We went from mistakes in Iraq to Egypt to Libya, to President Obama’s line in the sand in Syria. Each of these actions have helped to throw the region into chaos, and gave ISIS the space it needs to grow and prosper,” Trump jabbed of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump criticized President George W. Bush as well, saying, “It all began with the dangerous idea that we could make Western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interest in becoming a Western Democracy.”
The real estate mogul said the Obama administration’s foreign policy has overextended America’s resources and let America’s allies get away without paying a fair share. He added that America’s allies don’t believe America is dependable, and rivals no longer respect America because there is no clear foreign policy strategy.
Trump promised this will change when he is president.
“First, we need a long-term plan to halt the spread and reach of radical Islam,” Trump said, also noting that “we have to rebuild our military and our economy.”
“Finally, we must develop a foreign policy based on American interests,” Trump added. “No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first. Both our friends and enemies put their countries above ours and we, while being fair to them, must do the same.”
“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”
The Center for the National Interest hosted the event.
Trump’s full speech can be read here.
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