Trump, Reagan and the GOP's Foreign Policy Vision

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth uses a speech at the Reagan Library in California to argue that Donald Trump's foreign policy follows in the Gipper's footsteps. Plus, as the White House releases its new national security strategy, what does this document say about Trump's views on China, Russia, and the Western Hemisphere? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.3	among real estate professionals. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
0:40.6	The White House releases a new national security strategy document laying out the president's vision for U.S. foreign policy,
0:46.7	including a proposed Trump corollary to the famous Monroe Doctrine. Meantime, Defense Secretary
0:51.7	Pete Higseth gives a speech at the Reagan Library in California,
0:56.1	claiming the mantle of America's 40th president for the current administration's hard-nosed realism.
1:02.5	Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.
1:05.8	We're joined today by my colleague on the editorial page, editorial board member Kate O'Dell.
1:11.8	Late last week, the Trump administration released a national security strategy of the United
1:17.8	States of America, a little bit more than 30 pages if listeners want to go take a look for
1:23.0	themselves. But Kate, give us a sense of what this document is and what this version of it says, how it might differ from previous iterations.
1:33.1	Well, to take a step back, I think it's important to ask why a listener should read this, why should they should listen to a podcast about it.
1:38.8	Is this just another Beltway document that nobody reads?
1:41.5	Well, this is really the most complete picture.
1:45.2	The Trump administration has given us so far about its thinking on national security in the second term. To answer your
1:50.7	question, you know, is it different from past national security strategies? I think it is different
1:55.5	from the first Trump national security strategy in 2017, which sketched out this sort of great power
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