Trump's National Security Strategy & National Defense Strategy: "America First" Means Putting the US Ruling Elite Above All

Introduction

What is the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy

As an imperialist nation, the overall goal of the US is to retain its number one spot among imperialist powers by ensuring US monopoly capitalist interests. Each new administration lays out their National Security Strategy (NSS) as a program to set the direction, strategy and tactics they will carry out. The National Defense Strategy (NDS) then follows to lay out the implementation priorities carried out by its military-industrial complex.

Key Shifts from Previous Administrations

The Trump regime released its version of the NSS in November 2025 and subsequently the NDS in January 2026 emphasizing "America First," continuing from his theme of, "Make America Great Again," and plays to his working class middle class base of xenophobic narrow nationalists who feel repressed by big government. However, from his first administration into the second, Trump makes it blatantly clear that the America he speaks of is precisely the ruling elite - the US monopoly capitalists who have aligned with him and are helping eradicate the last semblances of bourgeois democracy to steer the country towards outright fascism.

This fascist domestic strategy is mirrored by an international strategy of rejecting the so-called "rules-based order" that past US regimes relied upon to sit at the helm of the global economy during the Cold War and in the two decades of unipolar US hegemony following the Cold War. Following World War 2, the foundations of international law enshrined in the United Nations and international financial institutions like the IMF-World Bank and World Trade Organization were used to create a mask of equality in the international political and economic system. In reality, this seemingly multilateral system kept the US on top of the imperialist system for nearly 80 years. The rise of rival multipolar superpowers utilizing that very same system has now pushed the Trump regime to fully shred this "rules-based order" in favor of "America First" strong-arming and bullying to achieve its foreign policy objectives. This approach to international relations forms the backbone of the Trump NSS and NDS.

The upholding of the interests of the US monopoly capitalists is nothing new as it is intrinsic to the US being an imperialist power, but it is now contending with a multipolar world where its seat as the number one super power is threatened and the crisis of imperialism is having resounding effects across the globe. The US has overstretched itself as a global hegemon - waging imperialist wars to grab more natural resources and gain access to labor power abroad, all the while continuing to frame itself as the "global policeman" ensuring world order. The offshoring of production led to de-industrialization of the nation and has left it completely reliant on a global supply chain that has become contested by rival powers, made dangerously inefficient due to intense profit-seeking of multinational corporations, and focused solely on the super-exploitation of the working classes of countless nations. All of this is making global economic supply chains operate increasingly less in the US' favor.

Trump desperately sought to use his bullying tactics of tariffs to get the US back on track and is focusing on industrializing domestically while keeping the US neocolonies in check to continue to supply the US' needs and provide more superprofits for himself and his monopoly capitalist allies. To recuperate, the Trump regime's NSS is shifting its focus to both the Western Hemisphere, through the announcement of the interventionist "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, and to Asia and the Pacific, which is a continuation from Obama's "Pivot to Asia" announced in 2009 to counter the US' biggest threat - China's economic rise and geopolitical positioning. While the US focuses on these two regions, the NSS claims that the rest of the imperialist powers need to step up to take on the burden of global policing by taking the lead on aggression against US rivals in their own regions. In the main this means Europe targeting Russia; "Israel" and Zionist-aligned Arab nations targeting Iran; Japan and South Korea targeting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. To do this, those aligned nations must significantly ramp up their military spending, intelligence sharing, and joint exercises which in turn spells more contracts for US weapons manufacturers, fuel, and surveillance data for the US imperialist's war-reliant economy.

Trajectory and Implementation of NSS & NDS

Internationally

On January 3, 2026, US military forces illegally kidnapped democratically-elected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Combatant Cilia Flores, in an unprovoked bombing of civilian populations, killing over 100 Venezuelan and Cuban citizens and military personnel in the process. This came as the US continues to bomb small fishing vessels killing nearly 150 poor fisherfolk from Venezuela, Colombia, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The NDS was made public just 20 days afterwards and highlighted its operations against so-called "narco-terrorists" and named President Maduro as its target in "Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE," without providing any evidence. This clearly demonstrates what the NDS means when it says the "Department of War will restore American military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use it to protect our Homeland and our access to key terrain throughout the region." It is the US' desperate authoritarian attempts to employ strong-armed tactics to bend the will of the nations south of its border. In the case of Venezuela, it is to access the world's largest oil supplies. The US is now blocking the export of Venezuela's oil to Cuba, using it as a stranglehold in addition to its decades of sanctions, to force the sovereign nation to depose President Miguel Díaz-Canel and end the socialist construction that has benefited the Cuban people's livelihoods for decades.

The NSS talks about upholding sovereignty of nations but makes it clear that the US will trample on their rights if those nations do not put US interests first. Such is also the case with Iran who is currently being bullied by the US with the goals of regime change, putting an end to their peaceful civilian nuclear program and controlling their vast oil reserves. The US is amassing a huge military presence in the region and repeatedly referencing last year's "Operation Midnight Hammer" - where Trump's regime unilaterally bombed Iran's nuclear sites without any provocation. US aggression against Iran is also meant to get rid of "Israel's" greatest rival and fully pave the way for the completion of the genocide of Palestine and conquest of West Asia in the name of "Greater Israel" while Trump oversees his private competitor to the United Nations in the form of his so-called "Board of Peace" that aims to rule over Gaza (more on this below).

Even nations who have been long-time allies with the US, have not been unscathed, as many have been subject to Trump's tariff wars. Trump has even gone as far as threatening military force to take Greenland from Denmark in the first weeks of January. The US wants Greenland for its oil, rare earth minerals, and access to the Arctic to counter Russia and China. Last year, Trump stated Canada should become the US 51st state and has now shifted to commenting about its "vulnerabilities" to China and Russia encroachment.

Hypocritically and in direct contrast to its military intervention in Venezuela for unsubstantiated accusations of "narco-terrorism," Trump granted presidential pardon to former Honduran president Juan Orlando-Hernández who was convicted by the US of possibly one of the world's largest and most violent drug-trafficking schemes. However, this pardon is completely in line with Trump's public proclamation of support for far-right conservative candidates in the presidential elections across Latin America and Europe, as he seeks support from fascist regimes in imperialist nations as well as in the US' neocolonies to carry out the US's bidding such as Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Javier Millei in Argentina.

Trump's newest scheme is the formation of his so-called "Board of Peace" originally set up to complete the US-Zionist takeover of Palestine through genocidal elimination and mass displacement of its people to create a giant industrial park by attracting private venture capital from real estate and big tech conglomerates. The Board itself places Trump as Chairman indefinitely, gives him complete control over the Board whether or not he remains the President of the US, and allows nations to join on a rotating bases but offers permanent membership for $1 billion. It is a private-sector led scheme to bypass the role of the United Nations which has often found itself at odds with the US on international matters especially when they conflict with US monopoly capitalist interests, and gives Trump international powers and immunities beyond his presidential term.

Domestically

The NSS' increased investment in militarism in the name of securing US "sovereignty" and economic interests is disastrous for the vast majority of the world including people in the US. Its emphasis of "America first" is clearly meant only for white supremacists and the ruling class elite who are aligned with Trump.

Further investment in militarism will give more economic and political power to companies that make their profits off of killing people, such as weapons manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, or surveillance tech giants like Microsoft. They then use their war profits to lobby for more war, tax cuts for the wealthy, and other anti-worker policies. It is no shock that these companies prioritize paying their executives in the millions while slapping the rest of their employees with massive layoffs, stagnating wages and attacking their rights to organize unions and build their collective power.

The economic and cultural investment in the war machine as laid out in the NSSunleashes ICE and other police terror on Latino, Black, Indigenous and other communities, regardless of their legal status or if they have any criminal record.Who Trump considers eligible to be part of his "America first" is made clear with his attempt to end birthright citizenship and the launch of the Trump Gold Card visa program - a pathway to citizenship to those who can afford to dole out $1 million to the US government. The Trump regime has also bent over backwards to offer refugee status to white South Africans, falsely claiming they are the victims of "genocide," and signaled they may start doing the same for white Jews from European countries.

As the imperialist US state strengthens its capacity for violence, it wields the same technology and tactics to demonize and repress peoples' movements fighting for justice. We have seen it in the many counterrevolutionary wars the US has waged around the world, but also in the repression of US-based movements. The 1033 program provides police departments with surplus military equipment which are even being used in ICE operations on civilians. The Trump's administration's immediate labeling of US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were murdered at the hands of ICE agents, as "domestic terrorists" without providing any evidence continues the regime's glorification of its own terror tactics against civilians as just and patriotic while vilifying any acts of self-defense, dissent or opposition by the people as dangerous and harmful to society.

What Do NSS & NDS Mean for the People in the US and Abroad

The vision the National Security Strategy lays out for the people of the world is as bleak as it is delusional. The insatiable desire for "the world's strongest, most dynamic, most innovative, and most advanced economy" is in fact at the root of the intense instability and violence we see in the world today. Nevertheless, the US economy has been built on the gross exploitation of billions of people around the world, and will inherently always breed resistance by the very people it oppresses. From the farmers of the neocolonies who defy land theft by multinational corporations, to service workers in the US like the Starbucks baristas striking for better pay, the people will not be satisfied until they can control their own fate and build a society that puts people over profit.

The US understands it can only protect its economic dominance with immense violence and political subversion, and both the NSS and NDS are stark reflections of that. It promises decades more of wars for profit and building the infrastructure necessary to carry it out - a global network of larger and growing US military bases and assets to enforce the US rule of law in strategic areas; further exploitation and plunder to aid the scientific and technological advancement of surveillance and killing machines; partnership with rising fascist governments and parties across the world to regain control of supply chains; enforcement of US hegemony in the region and repression of the people; a vast strategy of political and cultural deception that builds consent for US imperialism and fascist rule. The NSS and NDS may attempt to project strength, but the scale and brutality of this military apparatus will not be tolerated by the people. It spells the downfall of US empire.

Fighting Back Through Mass Movement Building, United Front & Class Struggle, International Solidarity

The ruling class attempts to increase profit margins by hitting the majority of working and oppressed people with mass layoffs, stagnating wages, cuts to benefits and workplace protections, making daily living conditions more and more unbearable as they are already dealing with rising costs for everyday needs from housing and healthcare, to childcare and education. As the government continues to shovel more money into the war machine, it actively cuts social programs for the poor like Medicaid and supplemental food assistance. The need to rise up, grow the power of the people, and build the mass movement against US imperialism and militarism has never been more clear.

The opportunity is ripe to grow the mass movement against US imperialist war. Across different classes, sectors and issues, people can be drawn into the struggle by linking the US' neglect of people's basic needs to the prioritization of war. Students are faced with limited options to continue paying for higher education or serving in the military or becoming ICE agents. Many education fields are also geared towards working for war profiteers or surveillance. Migrants are forced from their homelands as their countries are ravaged by US wars of aggression and corporate plunder. Workers experience the brunt of the economic crisis and have a central role to play in strengthening the anti-war movement in the US. We all have a stake in the fight and must work together - joining forces with people of faith working for peace, environmental groups concerned about the impacts of militarism, and more. By taking joint action around concrete demands to fight back against US militarism, the movement can build its strength and create even greater change.

A powerful anti-war movement in the US is linked internationally to the people fighting back against US-led war and imperialist plunder in the global south. A broad anti-imperialist united front of the people, materialized through global formations such as the International League of Peoples' Struggle, offer solidarity and political, moral, and material support for struggles for liberation and sovereignty being waged in countries across the globe against imperialism and all reaction. This is what will overcome the imperialist nightmare that Trump's NSS and NDS seek to impose on us.

The people united will never be defeated!