Trump-era foreign policy replaced benevolent multilateral hegemony with aggressive unilateralism and white nationalism

Evidence

As Islamophobia intensified after 9/11, so too did White nationalism. Mirroring the rise of White nativism in the early twentieth century that afflicted Jews and Catholics, recent demographic changes coupled with a gradual increase of racial minorities in elected office have triggered collective angst among conservative White Americans. Due in large part to President Donald J. Trump’s nativist policy agenda, White supremacists previously on the fringes of conservative politics were mainstreamed, triggering a resurgence of anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic discourse. An ecosystem of White nationalist organizations known as the Alt-Right is now playing the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and 1930s. Tellingly, the Alt-Right frequently invokes Christian identity in its warnings that America is under threat by Jews, Mexicans, African Americans, and Muslim savages. Other groups, such as the Army of God, the Creativity Movement, and Christian Identity groups, explicitly cite Christian theology to justify their hate, intolerance of, and violence against racial minorities. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1028 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trump’s foreign policy swapped liberal for illiberal hegemony while keeping empire — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 514; Trump kept US hegemony aims while ditching multilateral institutions for nationalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 518; Trump’s foreign policy abandoned the bipartisan liberal-hegemony consensus for unilateral nationalist imperialism. (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Trump replaced global economic stewardship with nationalist unilateralism yet kept MENA hegemony #qualifies (0.95)
• White supremacists were mainstreamed into conservative politics through Trump’s nativist agenda #corroborates (0.95) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1028
• Trump’s nationalism contradicted US multilateral hegemony strategy but kept its coercive core. #complicates (0.85)
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #complicates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• Clash-of-civilizations ideology animated the Trump administration’s core policies #complicates (0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 685
• Trumpism inverted liberal aversion to cruelty into a celebrated virtue #complicates (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 436