Trump's 'Predatory Hegemony'

It is an irrational and destructive approach to the rest of the world, but it is how a would-be emperor would treat states that he considers his vassals.

Stephen Walt has identified a useful way to describe Trump’s foreign policy:

Each of these terms captures some aspects of his approach, but the grand strategy of his second presidential term is perhaps best described as “predatory hegemony.” Its central aim is to use Washington’s privileged position to extract concessions, tribute, and displays of deference from both allies and adversaries, pursuing short-term gains in what it sees as a purely zero-sum world.

This is consistent with what I have called Trump’s racketeer imperialism and his “plunder doctrine.” As far as he is concerned, U.S. foreign policy should be focused on bullying and stealing from other countries. We have seen it on display everywhere from Greenland to Iran to Brazil and beyond. The president threatens to punish or attack other countries unless they concede things that they will almost certainly never concede, and then he uses tariffs, sanctions, or bombs, or all of the above, to penalize them for their resistance. It is an irrational and destructive approach to the rest of the world, but it is how a would-be emperor would treat states that he considers his vassals.