(LifeSiteNews) — As the Trump administration’s foreign policy begins to take shape, political observers are looking for clues as to what the next four years will look like. Remarks Donald Trump made while in the Oval Office this week about Russia and China are helpful in this regard.
While seated behind the Resolute Desk — with a portrait of Ronald Reagan hanging over his left shoulder — Trump encouragingly told reporters that “one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that.”
Trump exuberantly added, “President Putin and I agreed that we were going to be (de-nuclearizing) in a very big way … we already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over.”
Trump: “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that.” pic.twitter.com/Z8osuKnHVg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 13, 2025
Trump’s comments came after he had spoken to Putin by phone, a call where they also agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the Ukraine conflict.
Trump’s desire to engage with — as opposed to simply attack — two countries that have long been described as America’s biggest adversaries is a breath of fresh air as it shows he is willing to break with past (failed) operating procedures that have done nothing but increase profits for defense contractors and have heightened the likelihood of a world war breaking out.
At present, the U.S. military has an annual budget of around $850 billion. That is roughly the size of the next nine largest militaries in the world combined. For comparison’s sake, Russia and China purportedly spend $145 billion and $290 billion each year, respectively, on defense.
The US military spent $916 billion last year.
That is more than the next 9 countries combined.
War hawks want you to think this somehow helps bring world stability.
Take one look at the news, and it’s obvious that nothing could be further from the truth. pic.twitter.com/prxTkCUr5S
— Quincy Institute (@QuincyInst) June 18, 2024
The U.S. and Russia currently account for the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons, collectively owning 11,000. Fox reported that the U.S. has 3,748 nuclear warheads as of September 2023. In the late 1980s, that number was a whopping 22,217. Russia reportedly has 4,380, and China possesses around 600.
A coup for freedom
Trump’s remarks can only be appreciated within the context of recent developments. Not only has the president begun the dismantling of USAID, he instructed his Secretary of Defense and Vice President to put the world on notice that he intends to realign the U.S. toward a more hemispheric focus within a multi-polar world.
Speaking in Munich on Friday, Vice President JD Vance informed European technocrats that their decades-long, U.S.-subsidized vacation from self-reliance has come to an end.
“It’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense,” Vance told a stunned crowd.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor … what I worry about is the threat from within; the retreat of Europe from some of its own fundamental values.”
“We also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense.”
“The threat that I worry the most about is vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China…” https://t.co/H5oF6oj8zd
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) February 14, 2025
Vance’s remarks were not well received. Liberal German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius whined that “this is not acceptable,” a comment that prompted anti-war activist Daniel McAdams and Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to call on the United States to leave Europe behind altogether.
It’s time for the U.S. to leave NATO
Share if you agree https://t.co/78HKlQfIyZ
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 14, 2025
Dear @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance – PLEASE cut Europe loose! They obviously hate your guts and hate our freedoms more than any Osama bin Laden ever did. Pull ALL US troops out and exit NATO. Let them go pound sand. https://t.co/FkdemfCqHd
— Daniel McAdams (@DanielLMcAdams) February 14, 2025
Vance followed his historic broadside by holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Early reports indicate that Vance essentially told him to pound sand. Curt Mills of The American Conservative shared the following crucial observation on X:
Let’s face facts on what this is: a government that has suspended elections, that openly says it cannot exist without weapons for a war, and has no clear endpoint in the slightest if said conflict continues. The incentives are plain. It’s simply up to the US to wise up pic.twitter.com/nyUAm4p3Yd
— Curt Mills (@CurtMills) February 15, 2025
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered an equally forceful message at NATO headquarters in Brussels this past week.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” he said, shattering the dreams of globalists around the world.
Tectonic shift here in US policy:
– Official declaration that a return to 2014 borders is unrealistic
– NATO membership for Ukraine is off the table
– Only European troops will be considered for peacekeeping forces
– These forces will NOT be covered under Article 5 https://t.co/mDXVJCAjd6— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) February 12, 2025
If Trump is successful in bringing peace to Ukraine and if he negotiates a lasting deal with Russia and China — all while defanging the U.S. Deep State and stopping the war in the Middle East — he will have accomplished what no other modern president has ever done, and would be entirely deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. He will have also lived up to his old 2016 promise of draining the swamp.
It’s still early, and plenty of things can go awry from now until 2028, but at this stage in the game, Trump 2.0 is shaping up to be what many of his initial supporters had hoped for the first time around.