US Foreign Policy After Trump

Peter Zeihan 5 min

The United States is flying blind in foreign policy due to the collapse of bipartisan consensus and the gutting of planning institutions. The country must wait for a new political force to emerge and rebuild the structure, a process historically taking about a decade.

  • Donald Trump

Chapters

  1. 0:00

    Economic Transition

    The US economy is shifting as baby boomers leave and younger generations enter, creating a workforce deficit that forces foreign policy into flux without established precedents.

  2. 0:19

    Loss of Bipartisan Consensus

    The bipartisan agreement on foreign policy that existed since 1945 has collapsed, leaving no unified strategy to replace the Cold War alliance system.

  3. 1:34

    Institutional Collapse

    Both major parties lack capable leadership or institutions to develop new policies, while the Trump administration has dismantled key planning offices within the government. Without dedicated planning bodies or bipartisan consensus, the nation is making future decisions based on gut feelings rather than informed strategy.

  4. 3:52

    Increased Conflict Risk

    The lack of preparation will inevitably lead to more frequent and bloodier conflicts than necessary, mirroring the pre-World War II era.

  5. 4:28

    Path Forward

    The country must wait for a new political force to emerge and rebuild the structure, a process historically taking about a decade.

Key points

  • 0:19

    The US economy is shifting as baby boomers leave and younger generations enter.

  • 0:19

    We are losing our largest workforce ever, and it's being replaced with our smallest workforce generation ever.

  • 0:19

    The bipartisan nature of foreign policy is gone.

  • 1:34

    The Soviet Union has been gone for 35 years, and we never had a conversation on what should replace that policy.

  • 1:34

    The Republican Party has been shorn of its policy arm.

  • 1:34

    One of the first things DHS chief Robert Kennedy Jr. did was gut the office that hunts down epidemics on a global level.

  • 1:34

    The Office of Net Assessment in the US military was gutted because they made Pete Glossary look like he wasn't a very bright boy.

  • 1:34

    We're kind of flying blind when it comes to thinking about what the challenges and the opportunities of the future are going to be.

  • 3:52

    That is going to get us involved in a lot more conflicts that are going to be a lot bloodier than they need to be.

  • 4:28

    We will probably have to wait for a third force... to basically take the reins and start us over with a new structure.

Who and where

People · 1

  • Drawing of Donald Trump

    Donald Trump 8

    President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)

    Photo 1

1. Photo: Daniel Torok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikidata · redrawn in our house style (Donald Trump)

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