Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth proclaimed President Donald Trump to be the true heir of former President Ronald Reagan while speaking at the Reagan Library this week — but the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board begged to differ.
“Most who invoke Ronald Reagan’s name today, especially self-styled Republican hawks, are not much like Ronald Reagan,” said Hegseth, who is at the center of a firestorm of controversy for seemingly illegal “double-tap” strikes on shipwreck survivors. “Donald Trump is the true and rightful heir of Ronald Reagan.”
But Reagan’s approach to security and defense isn’t really that much like Trump’s, argued the board.
“Reagan negotiated from strength because he first built up that strength, both military and economic,” wrote the board. “He deployed midrange nuclear missiles in Europe despite ferocious Soviet opposition. The Soviets tried to break the U.S. alliance with Europe, and they only turned to serious negotiating when they concluded they couldn’t compete with the U.S.” By contrast, they argued, Russia and China have united in an alliance of convenience to try to thwart U.S. ambitions, and “Mr. Trump is so far making concessions to both and is spending less on defense as a share of the economy than Jimmy Carter did in 1979.”
The Trump administration’s betrayal of Reaganism doesn’t stop there, either, the board said.
“Mr. Hegseth’s lines that the ‘unipolar moment’ of American primacy ‘is over’ and talk about ‘respecting’ China’s massive military build-up — designed to defeat U.S. forces — is a call for detente,” they wrote. “But Reagan rejected detente with the Soviets in the 1970s. He rejected the view, common at the time, that the best the U.S. could do was negotiate a balance of power. This also may not be the best week for Mr. Hegseth to denounce ‘globalism’ as the Trump Team argues that America can trust Beijing with Nvidia’s advanced AI chips.”
MAGA acolytes would have Americans believe the U.S. would be better off with isolationism.
“Don’t believe it,” the board concluded. The truth is, “the Administration is associating with Reagan because Republican voters still see themselves in his tradition and coalition. Mr. Trump knows who is the standard bearer for Republican electoral and strategic success. We wish his policies were as similar to Reagan’s as his slogan.”
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