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As a New Yorker, I have followed Donald Trump for years, long before he entered politics.
People laughed at him when he made bold comments about foreign policy. What does Trump know! National security is the exclusive domain of experts, not real estate developers or reality TV stars.
But looking back, Trump was right on all the major foreign policy issues. It was the qualified elites who made a mistake!
Former President Trump holds a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena on November 4, 2024 in Pittsburgh. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Here are Trump’s top six:
Our long national Biden nightmare is coming to an end. Trump's 'Indomitable' now freed
For decades, the consensus has been that if the United States helps China grow, it will be a friendly trading partner and play by the rules — just like Japan, South Korea and European countries. Trump disagrees. Experts laughed when he claimed China has been lying to us for decades. "China has attacked our factories, outsourced our jobs, destroyed our industries, stolen our intellectual property and violated their commitments in world trade agreements."
As recently as 2019, Joe Biden scoffed at the idea that China might replace the United States as world leader, telling a crowd in Iowa City: "China wants to eat our lunch? Come on, man." The experts were wrong , Trump is right.
Long before he ran for president in 2015, Trump recognized that recent advances in oil and gas production would change the strategic game for the United States and the world. When President Barack Obama left office, the price of oil was $120 a barrel, and experts warned that the world was running out of oil.
Trump can move America into the future with strong nuclear energy policy
Trump's embrace of the U.S. energy industry has increased U.S. production and pushed oil prices down to $40 a barrel. Not only did it spur extraordinary growth in the U.S. economy, it also devastated the economies of Russia and Iran, which needed oil prices above $90/barrel to fund their governments. Russia and Iran have been forced to tighten their belts after their energy export revenues fell by nearly two-thirds during the Trump administration. They cannot afford a costly war.
Biden reversed Trump's energy policies, and oil prices predictably climbed back to $100 a barrel. Iran uses these windfall profits to fund its nuclear program and arm its proxies to attack Israel. Russia used its newfound wealth to attack Ukraine. There was a reason Russia invaded Ukraine during the Obama and Biden presidencies, but not under Trump. In the Trump era, they don’t have the money to pay for expensive wars.
Democrats and Republicans have supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for 20 years. Trump disagrees. As early as 2003, he called the Iraq war "a mess." Turns out he was right. We have shed American blood and spent trillions of dollars in two wars we can never win.
The threat from radical Islam is now at our doorstep. Biden ignored it. Trump must take action
Trump withdrew from Obama's flawed Iran nuclear deal because it enriched Iran and did not halt its nuclear weapons program. He ordered the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Quds Force. Rather than engage in endless fruitless negotiations, Trump set out to bankrupt Iran with his energy policies and oil sanctions.
By the time Trump left office, Iran was nearly bankrupt and its proxy army was weakened. But President Biden has extended a lifeline to Iran. He redirected U.S. energy production, paid billions of dollars to Iran and refused to enforce sanctions. Iran used the $100 billion windfall to fund Hamas and Hezbollah's renewed proxy war against Israel.
For decades, American leaders have said we must resolve the Palestinian issue as the first step toward a broader Arab-Israeli peace. But time and time again, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate seriously, making peace elusive.
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Trump has taken the opposite approach and focused on Arab-Israeli peace. His energy policies have lowered global oil prices. Arab leaders realize they can no longer rely solely on oil export revenues to fund their governments. They need to diversify their economy, which requires peace with Israel.
Trump also recognized that a younger generation of Arab leaders, educated in the West and adapted to more open societies, would be willing to embrace dramatic social changes and develop economic ties with Israel. The Abraham Accords were the first peace agreement between Israel and Sunni Gulf states. Trump succeeded where all experts for decades had failed.
Every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy has complained that our NATO allies are not paying their fair share for our mutual defense. Obama called them "freeloaders." Our allies always make excuses, claiming they cannot afford the promised 2% of GNP and rely on the United States to pay for their defense.
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Trump intimidated, berated and threatened them until our NATO allies finally increased their defense spending. It turns out they have money after all.
For years, Washington bureaucrats, politicians, and pundits have been wrong about the major foreign policy issues facing the country. It takes an outsider to see things from a different perspective. Instead of engaging in endless futile diplomacy and opening the checkbook, Trump is combining trade, economics, and common sense to rebuild American security. And his second term will be even better.
Click here to read more from KT McFARLAND