Donald Trump has pursued the most idiosyncratic and unsuccessful foreign policy in living memory. Even among Republicans, there is little support for annexing Greenland, seizing Venezuela’s oil, waging a cold war with Canada, cutting off Ukraine, insulting and indiscriminately tariffing allies, fawning over authoritarians, buying diesel from Russia, launching a war on Iran, blowing up alleged drug boats and making lucrative deals abroad that benefit the first family.
Many congressional Republicans rolled their eyes and muttered under their breath at most of those moves but were too cowed by the president’s popularity with their own base to protest. (In a pre-election poll, 79 percent of Republicans approved of Trump’s job performance.) Yet after last week’s midterm shellacking, they’ve seen the cost of following the cult leader over the cliff. It’s just possible that out of the wreckage of the MAGA party will emerge a chastened group of lawmakers who are willing to work with Democrats to reorient U.S. foreign policy in a direction that actually puts America, rather than Trump, first.
The country already saw some evidence last week of a Trump 2.0 foreign policy. On Election Day, the president announced he would end $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel. That represents a recognition that his open-ended support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which has included undertaking two military campaigns with Israel — has become intensely unpopular. That evening, after months of trying to scapegoat Ukraine for high gasoline prices, Trump finally admitted that his war with Iran was to blame.
The next day, Vice President JD Vance posted a lengthy message on social media about how the GOP ought to recalibrate after the election. Among the advice: “End the war” and “change our relationship to Israel.” The new Democratic majority completely agrees and will no doubt push the administration to make good on his words.
Ending the war won’t be easy, of course, because Iran has to assent. It will probably require returning to the June deal that offered Tehran tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and recognition of its control over the Strait of Hormuz. The fate of the regime’s nuclear program would remain the subject of future negotiations. Those are bitter pills to swallow, but they may go down easier if Republicans want to avoid contesting the 2028 election with the Iran war still raging.
Trump and Vance didn’t comment on the administration’s tariffs, but those policies were also a large part of the reason Republicans lost so badly. In the NBC News exit poll, 66 percent of voters said Trump’s tariffs had hurt the economy. Democrats will back tariffs on China — no one wants to see a flood of imports wiping out the U.S. auto industry — but not on Canada. Many Republicans also might support a rollback of tariffs on America’s northern neighbor after seeing how much they hurt the GOP in border states like Michigan and Maine. There might even be bipartisan support for taking the power to set tariff rates away from the president.
There is also a bipartisan, perhaps even a veto-proof, majority to support Ukraine and oppose Vladimir Putin’s aggression, given that only 3 percent of Americans side with Russia. Congress could pass additional aid to Ukraine, ensure that Starlink’s satellite internet system stays turned on, send Russian funds frozen in the United States (estimates range from $5 billion to $50 billion) to Kyiv and strengthen sanctions on Moscow without any presidential waiver. Congressional leaders can offer Trump a deal: They’ll give him money to finish the White House ballroom in return for more Patriots to Ukraine.
Another area of potential bipartisan agreement is the defense budget. Even with Republicans in control, there is little support for a 50 percent increase in spending to $1.5 trillion. Not when the federal debt has surpassed the size of the economy for the first time since World War II. Both parties might work together to trim the fat, beginning by eliminating the president’s boondoggles such as the “Golden Fleet” of battleships and the “Golden Dome” missile defense system. Oh, and Congress could end the costly efforts to redesign aircraft carriers to accommodate Trump’s eccentric preference — in defiance of the Navy’s expert judgment — for obsolescent steam catapults.
The president has great leeway in foreign policy, but Congress has the power of the purse and should use it. That means ending funding for the Iran war, unlawful boat strikes and other actions that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken without congressional authorization. Trump claims to still support Hegseth, but the defense secretary faces growing bipartisan opposition in Congress. His days are probably numbered.
In addition to legislating, there is a great deal of investigating that Democrats need to do. The administration’s corruption is unprecedented and much of it has a foreign nexus. Democrats should figure out, for a start, what, if anything, Qatar is getting in return for giving Trump a $400 million airplane and what, if anything, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are getting in return for significant investments in Trump family companies.
Don’t expect GOP support for uncovering presidential cupidity. But with Trump’s policies now decisively repudiated at the polls and the president himself a lame duck, there could be some unexpected bipartisan agreement to reorient U.S. foreign policy in a direction that most Americans can support.
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