We are pleased to present the 13th issue of John Lukacs Analyses on Global Affairs: 2025/13. Foreign Policy Fractures within the Trump Coalition
Key insights from this analysis include:
- The MAGA coalition that enabled Donald Trump’s election is remarkably diverse, it also include elements that traditionally do not belong to the Republican Party.
- Trump’s “America First” foreign policy has been influenced by earlier anti-interventionist, populist movements on the American right.
- Due to its diversity, the MAGA movement is ideologically not unified, there are significant differences of opinion within the coalition.
- The factions of the MAGA coalition have their own ideological background and foreign policy goals, which leads to different opinions on, among others, the issue of Israel and the Middle East, Ukraine, China, international institutions, as well as trade policy and immigration.
- Donald Trumps makes the final decisions, and the fractions attempt to influence him. Trump’s foreign policy approach is transactional, but he also has his own priorities.
You can read the full paper on the John Lukacs Institute website.