When Russian President Vladimir Putin decided he wanted to talk about his nation’s war with Ukraine, the Trump administration quickly set up a meeting a week later, complete with a red carpet welcome and a stealth bomber flying overhead.
Trump then invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to an in-person meeting immediately afterward, and Zelensky agreed. When seven other European leaders said they wanted to join this meeting, the White House rolled out the invitations.
As MAGA leaders and influencers had been quick to argue just months ago, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine does not directly affect American lives. There are no US troops there. Ukraine is not a NATO member. Trade with the country is minor. The conflict is thousands of miles, and an ocean, away.
Getting involved in that war — or even caring about it — seemed to ran counter to the “America First” foreign policy Trump had long espoused.
Until recently, American interest in that war was mostly indirect, shaped by higher global energy prices and the possibility that if Russia swallowed Ukraine, Putin would soon be at the doorstep of a NATO ally that the United States is obligated to defend. Beyond that, most Americans were insulated from the consequences.
Yet Trump’s foreign policy involvement has gone far beyond Ukraine. He has personally stepped in to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hamas, Syria, and Iran. He helped broker cease-fires between India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Through it all, Trump has been clear about what motivates him: he wants a Nobel Peace Prize. He has not only said as much publicly but reportedly made a call lobbying for it privately.
The problem, of course, is that none of those conflicts were inherently about America or American interests. Which begs the question: what happened to being “America First”?
The answer is that it is essentially dead. The doctrine has become yet another casualty of Trump’s ever-shifting impulses, often changing with the last conversation he had or the latest shiny object to catch his attention.
The real break may have come when Trump decided to send bunker-busting bombs to strike three nuclear facilities in Iran. None of those facilities were capable of producing weapons that could reach the United States. Still, Trump had campaigned on the promise that Iran would never acquire a nuclear weapon, in line with past presidents of both parties. If Tehran were to succeed, the balance of power in the Middle East would shift dramatically, and Israel — America’s closest ally in the region — would be directly threatened.
For Trump, defending Israel has long been a priority. But if recent negotiations are any guide, he may now be prepared to extend a similar security umbrella to Ukraine as part of a larger peace deal.
This is the precise kind of global policeman role Trump had once promised to reject. The original appeal of “America First” was that it provided a blueprint for a nation exhausted by decades of costly foreign wars. It was a slogan meant to reassure voters that US soldiers would no longer be sent into conflicts with little direct bearing on their lives.
When Trump entered his second term, America First was very much alive. USAID was gutted as was Voice of America. The integrated free trade status quo was out, and tariffs were in. Trump would no longer defer to other nations’ self-determination automatically, but famously didn’t rule out military intervention to seize Greenland.
But now, Trump has now positioned himself as the indispensable dealmaker for conflicts spanning multiple continents. His interventions may generate headlines and even, at times, reduce immediate bloodshed. But they also underscore the collapse of a once-defining principle of his political identity.
In the end, America First is not so much a foreign policy doctrine as it is a rhetorical relic, one that Trump has discarded when it no longer suited his ambitions. What remains is not a coherent worldview but a collection of improvisations driven by ego, optics, and the pursuit of personal glory.
What this means for the future of MAGA after Trump is very uncertain. There is an element of the base that certainly was drawn to this idea. But if there are Republicans who want to run for president in 2028 with more of an establishment view on foreign policy, they may no longer be perceived as out of touch.
The loss of America First may also may help explain why foreign leaders are so eager to flock to the White House these days. They know that, for all his bluster about putting America first, Trump is now putting himself at the center of the world stage.
And he is ready to change his mind again.
James Pindell is a Globe political reporter who reports and analyzes American politics, especially in New England.