President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance delivered speeches over the past two days that acknowledged the shifting dynamics of the global order and called for a reorientation of U.S. foreign and defense strategy.
Speaking Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Vice President Vance told graduating midshipmen that "the era of uncontested U.S. dominance is over.” He criticized the post-Cold War assumption that American primacy was assured, saying that U.S. policymakers had wrongly believed no rival would emerge after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Vance pointed to Russia and China as rising powers now capable of challenging the United States across multiple domains, from space and technology to infrastructure and global supply chains.
“No more undefined missions, no more open-ended conflicts, we’re returning to a strategy grounded in realism and protecting our core national interest” Vance would say to applause from the cadets in the crowd.
His remarks echoed sentiments expressed earlier in the year by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in a January interview with podcaster Megyn Kelly that the post-1991 "unipolar moment" was an anomaly. Rubio emphasized the need for the U.S. to refocus its foreign policy around clearly defined national interests.
Following Vance’s address, President Trump delivered a commencement speech at West Point to graduates of the Army College on Saturday, reinforcing the administration’s evolving worldview. Trump declared that the U.S. military would no longer be used to “carry democracy at gunpoint,” and dismissed cultural transformation efforts abroad.
“The job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host ‘drag shows’ to transform foreign cultures…to spread democracy at the point of a gun,” Trump said. “The military’s job is to dominate any foe and to annihilate any threat to America.” He added that under his leadership, the military had regained global respect.
While both speeches reflect a growing consensus within the Trump administration that the global balance of power is shifting, they have not yet been accompanied by a clear change in official U.S. policy, instead, the Trump Administration has so far carried out the same policies carried out under former President Joe Biden in regards to continued support for Ukraine, involvement in the Middle East in support of Israel, while also announcing intentions to focus on the Indo-Pacific to confront China.