An Analysis Of Trump Administration’s Populist Diplomacy

As an anti-elite and anti-establishment social movement,populism has appeared many times in American history.In the 21 st century,populism is on the rise again in the United States.In 2016,Trump campaigned to become the president,as a right-wing populist political spokesman.The foreign policies he launched were also marked by populism,almost subverting the diplomatic strategy of U.S.Trump’s populist diplomacy concept is centered on "America First",and contains the traditional values of Jacksonian including honor,advocacy of force and emphasis on civil community and identity politics.Therefore,the populism represented by Trump is also regarded as the resurgence of Jacksonism.As a result,Trump redefines the United States as a ‘nationalist’ country.The security and interests of the United States,rather than universal values,are the primary goals of American diplomacy.The United States should focus on domestic affairs and reduce external exposure.According to the change of diplomatic concept,Trump’s foreign policy has changed from multilateralism to unilateralism and bilateralism.Second,through securitization mobilization,economic issues become the primary concern of its foreign policy,and it shows a tendency to be anti-globalization.In terms of military security,Trump demanded that the U.S.alliance should be restructured on the basis of ‘fairness and reciprocity’.The logic of Trump’s foreign policy has returned to realism.In order to meet the demands of domestic populism and the need of domestic electoral politics,as far as Trump’s concerned,the short-term and visible interests are the first and foremost.The white workers of lower-and-middle class in the United States is the main target.This paper takes the U.S.withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the launch of the trade war with China as a case study,in order to provide a new research perspective and empirical facts for the analysis of Trump’s populist diplomacy.