The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took issue Monday with the Trump administration's new national security strategy, adding to a bevy of criticism the board has heaped on the president.
The strategy, remarked the board, represents a significant shift from the president's first-term approach to great power competition. The strategy prioritizes the Western Hemisphere and positions it as America's main focus. It also downplays threats elsewhere, emphasizes immigration and drug trafficking as grave national security concerns, and commits to removing malign foreign interests from the region.
But the Journal bemoaned that Trump's geographic focus lacks strategic coherence, as the document severely underestimates threats from China and Russia.
"By any measure the largest threat to the U.S. is the hostile power across the Pacific that has tripled its nuclear arsenal in five years—China," the Journal noted. "Yet the document describes commerce as 'the ultimate stakes' in the Pacific and treats trade imbalances as a bigger threat to U.S. prosperity than Beijing’s military buildup."
The editorial added, "The best defense for this weakness on China is that the Administration wants to conciliate to buy time while Beijing holds the whip hand on rare-earth production."
The strategy pledges to "build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain," but it stops short of committing to increased defense spending.
The board railed that China is the "main underwriter" of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, and that Russia is "where the strategy’s wheels fall off."
"The document counsels 'strategic stability' with the power that invaded eastern Europe and has been deploying nuclear blackmail against the U.S. and NATO. Congratulations on making the Ukraine war harder to end. Mr. Putin will wield the strategy as proof that NATO expansion and European decadence justify his imperialism," the Journal warned.
Furthermore, the strategy was filled with contradictions, the board said. It criticizes European allies while celebrating tariffs that undermine their trust. It advocates leading in science and tech while rejecting "global talent" recruitment. It claims the U.S. has the world's best economy while presenting a history of American decline.
The Journal's board has served the Trump administration with a healthy dose of criticism, predominantly over his tariffs and handling of Russia
