Donald Trump Just Broke With Decades of Foreign Policy in Inaugural Address

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Updated: | Originally published: ;

An inauguration speech is a blank canvas. Presidents can say whatever they want, hit whatever note feels right, and channel whatever mood has, at that moment, seized the American populace. A president can appeal to our better angels, stir our worst fears, or move us toward a celebration of collective renewal.

In his first speech as the President of the United States on Friday, Donald J. Trump conjured a uniquely dark and inward-looking vision of America. Echoing the same themes that dominated his campaign speeches, the 45th president chose to describe a nation overrun by poverty, gangs, and violence, a country whose wealth has been bled dry by international obligations.

“We have defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay,” he said. “We have made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated… [T]he wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their arms and redistributed all across the world.”

In sentence after sentence, Trump’s address underscored a world view grounded by the belief that U.S. foreign and domestic policy is, and must, operate as a zero-sum game: either the world wins or American wins. It cannot be both.

Read More: Full Transcript of Trump’s Inauguration Speech

Trump’s solution to the dystopia he so powerfully describes is protectionism, both economic and military. “We are assembled here today issuing a new decree to be heard in every city in every foreign capital and in every hall of power: from this day forward, a new vision will govern our land,” he announced. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America First. America First.”

By Trump’s lights, the world now is a dangerous and predatory place, populated by thieves and criminals, hordes of workers poised to poach our industries. “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries, making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs,” he said. “Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.”

Instead of trying to export American values, he warned, like liberty and equality for women, the U.S. must close itself off to foreign engagement. American policy, he said, must be governed by “the understanding that it is the right of all nations to to put their own interests first.”

20 Photographs That Show the Essential Donald Trump

1981 Trump talks on a car phone in a limo in New York City. “It looks like he’s running for President in there,” Benson said. “There’s a bit of control there ... People walking about but he’s in the limo.”
1981 Trump talks on a car phone in a limo in New York City. “It looks like he’s running for President in there,” Benson said. “There’s a bit of control there ... People walking about but he’s in the limo.”Harry Benson
1987 Trump and his first wife, Ivana, in their bedroom at Trump Tower in New York City. Benson chose the location—“it tells you a lot about the people”—and wanted them to dance. “She could dance,” he joked, “but he was a bit slow.”
1987 Trump and his first wife, Ivana, in their bedroom at Trump Tower in New York City. Benson chose the location—“it tells you a lot about the people”—and wanted them to dance. “She could dance,” he joked, “but he was a bit slow.”Harry Benson
1987 Trump and his father Fred and mother Mary Ann and Ivana, at a dinner in New York City. Harry Benson
1986 Trump celebrates after the completion of repairs to Wollman Rink in Central Park. He got the contract from the city, finishing early and well under budget.
1986 Trump celebrates after the completion of repairs to Wollman Rink in Central Park. He got the contract from the city, finishing early and well under budget.Harry Benson
1996 Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, at Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City.
1996 Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, at Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City.Harry Benson
1987 Trump reflected in a mirror during a portrait session. Harry Benson
1987 Trump gesticulates during a helicopter ride to Atlantic City. Benson, who prides himself on spontaneity and closeness, said he likes “to get people moving.”
1987 Trump gesticulates during a helicopter ride to Atlantic City. Benson, who prides himself on spontaneity and closeness, said he likes “to get people moving.”Harry Benson
1990 “Donald, I’ve never seen a million dollars in my life,” Benson told Trump at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.Harry Benson
1990 Trump and Michael Jackson, his guest, at the grand opening of the Trump Taj Mahal casino resort in Atlantic City.
1990 Trump and Michael Jackson, his guest, at the grand opening of the Trump Taj Mahal casino resort in Atlantic City.Harry Benson
Donald atop Trump Tower@Benson1987.JPG
1987 Trump stands on top of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City.Harry Benson
2014 Trump and his wife, Melania, in their apartment at Trump Tower in New York City. “Donald was very proud of her,” Benson said.
2014 Trump and his wife, Melania, in their apartment at Trump Tower in New York City. “Donald was very proud of her,” Benson said. Harry Benson
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his children, from left: Donald John “Don” Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his children, from left: Donald John “Don” Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
Eric Trump in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.
Eric Trump in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
Donald Trump Jr. in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.
Donald Trump Jr. in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
Ivanka Trump in her office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.
Ivanka Trump in her office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 6, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
2016 Trump and his wife, Melania, at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach Florida.
2016 Trump and his wife, Melania, at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach Florida.Harry Benson
Donald Trump in a conference room, where he's storing his archive of press and memorabilia, on July 11, 2016.
Donald Trump in a conference room, where he's storing his archive of press and memorabilia, on July 11, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his grandson Theodore James in Trump’s office in New York City on July 11, 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his grandson Theodore James in Trump’s office in New York City on July 11, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his grandson Theodore James in Trump’s office in New York City on July 11, 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his grandson Theodore James in Trump’s office in New York City on July 11, 2016. Harry Benson for TIME
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 11, 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in his office at Trump Tower in New York City on July 11, 2016.Harry Benson for TIME

Trump’s “America First” vision earned cheers and fist-pumps among the tens of thousands standing in the rain in Washington, D.C., on Friday. But it also sent shivers down the spines of lawmakers, policy wonks and citizens on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Trump’s vision of the world, after all, is new. It is neither traditionally Republican nor Democratic. And it marks a profound shift in the philosophy that has undergirded U.S. economic and foreign policy under both parties’ administrations for seventy-five years.

In the wake of World War II, the great powers of the Western world joined to create the institutions of economic and military interdependence, like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations, that we have today. The idea behind those bodies was partly to maintain world peace. By fostering a world order in which nations were economically, militarily and morally dependent on one another, we would not go to war with each other. Their creation was also grounded in the belief, precisely on the opposite of what Trump offers today, that international cooperation is a non-zero sum game. A rising tide raises all boats.

U.S. presidents of both parties, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, defended and sustained this vision of American interdependence—often under considerable criticism. It is a world view that has, over the last seven decades, been hard fought, hard won, the subject of repeated and heated political debates. At the center is the understanding that, by choosing to wade into the complicated world outside of our borders, Americans choose a great burden in exchange for a less tangible strength.

Trump’s address Friday was, at heart, a repudiation of this world view. As the President of the United States, Trump now promises to close off our borders, turn our eyes inward and wrap our great wings around ourselves. It remains to be seen whether America, one day emerging from this self-imposed cocoon, will find itself first.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the name of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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Write to Haley Sweetland Edwards at haley.edwards@time.com