Trump’s National Security Strategy
On this episode of American Prestige: Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson on the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy.

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Danny and Derek welcome to the show Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson, co-hosts of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, to talk about the Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy. They discuss how the document leans on civilizational framing, portrays competition as existential conflict, omits diplomacy and institutions in favor of coercion and deal-making, and deemphasizes democracy promotion. They also touch on the strategy’s treatment of Europe and Latin America, its assumptions about American power, and what the new NSS suggests about the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
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Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office on December 15, 2025.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds /AFP via Getty Images)Danny and Derek welcome to the show Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson, cohosts of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, to talk about the Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy. They discuss how the document leans on civilizational framing, portrays competition as existential conflict, omits diplomacy and institutions in favor of coercion and deal-making, and deemphasizes democracy promotion. They also touch on the strategy’s treatment of Europe and Latin America, its assumptions about American power, and what the new NSS suggests about the direction of US foreign policy.
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Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They discuss the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book’s essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, US empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself.
Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26
Don’t forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today!
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