The National Security Strategy of the U.S.,2025

             Post-03 

National Security Strategy of the U.S.,  November, 2025       

-- Confusion or Cohesion in the psyche of the POTUS 

   In my preceding blog, I discussed the inconsistent and somewhat baffling utterings in his frequent pressers, as well as the actions of President Trump, which many found difficult to decipher. Such an opaque situation might have led many to conclude that all these were nothing short of “madness.” However, I was of the opinion that it might be too premature to hold such a view, despite his habitual impulsive talkativeness, which betrayed his showmanship and resulted in a frequent change of mind overnight. True, that may appear unbecoming of a person holding such a lofty position, often seen to wield power to decide the fate of many nations on the globe. 

      But for a change, toward the completion of nearly one year in office, the Trump administration has come up with a document entitled “National Security Strategy of the United States of America, November 2025.’’ Frankly speaking, one may feel a little astonished that future projections of the upcoming foreign policy of the U.S. could be made available to its allies and adversaries alike without much effort on the part of either of them.  However, such an exercise on the part of the President is largely a routine affair. The production of such a document is mandated annually under Section 603 of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defence Reorganisation Act of 1986. But during his first term in office, Trump put it in black and white only once. It is worthwhile to mention that what is available in the public domain may have a different classified version for transmission to Congress. That version, if any, may contain more details, including reports received from the intelligence wings of the administration to buttress the operational parts therein, indicating the pattern of flow of required funds to achieve the stated objectives, etc.

       Now, let's examine the document itself. At the very beginning, President Trump is particular in setting the main theme of the document. While penning its Preface, the President declares,” In everything we do, we are putting America first… In the years ahead, we will continue to develop every dimension of our national strength— and we will make America safer, richer, free, greater, and more powerful than ever before.” 

        This 29-page document has pointed out how serious loopholes in the National strategy failed the nation since the end of the Cold War, which, of course, includes periods when the country had seen its Republican Presidents too.

       As per the said document, after the end of the Cold War, the flawed national security strategy became the brainchild of the ” American foreign policy elites” who “convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interest of our country.” That not only caused a drain of national wealth through their overestimation of “ America’s ability to fund, simultaneously, maintain a massive welfare regulatory- administrative state, alongside a massive military, and diplomatic intelligence and foreign aid complex.”  

       The strategy paper declares that the preceding administration of Biden spoiled everything to the core, which President Trump achieved in his first term. That is why, in his second term, it has become incumbent upon him to take up immediate remedial initiatives and drastic “ course correction.”[Emphasise mine]. Such course correction matters have been highlighted in this document with the following words:-

          “ We want to protect this country, its people, its territory, its economy, and its way of life from military attack and hostile foreign influence, whether espionage, predatory trade practices, drug and human trafficking, destructive propaganda and influence operations, cultural subversions, or any other threat to our nation.”[ Emphasis mine]

      We all know that President Trump, in one of the earliest of executive orders butchered the USAID, which lay golden eggs not only for many in domestic space but also for many underdeveloped or developing countries, mostly through NGOs. At the same time, it appears that  President Trump does not hold most of the world bodies in high esteem. This might be due to his growing perception that the singular hold of his country over these institutions has been diminishing day by day with the emergence of a new economic superpower in China and a few other potential challengers. Perhaps that is why the document has to take recourse to championing the cause of national sovereignty to marginalise the impact of transnational bodies. Just have a look at the wording here. Is it not an attempt on the part of the Trump administration to mask the real intent? Well, the relevant part of the document reads like this:- 

       “We stand for the sovereign rights of nations against the sovereignty-sapping incursions of the most intrusive transnational organisations, and for reforming those institutions so that they assist rather than hinder individual sovereignty and further American interests.” 

      Similarly, under a sub-head, “Balance of Power, the Trump Administration appears to indirectly flex its muscles as the lone superpower on earth, as it wants all other nations to accept “a timeless truth” of being subjected to big brotherly interventions in their domestic affairs under the resurrected phrase of “sphere of influence” of post- WWII international relational eco-system. So we have a statement included in the document under discussion:-

” As the United States rejects the ill-fated concept of global domination for itself, we must prevent the global and in some cases even regional domination of others…The outsized influence of larger, richer and stronger nations is a timeless truth of international relations.

         In region-wise deliberations on the security overview, there is one sub-para entitled “ A. Western Hemisphere: Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine”  It reads like this– “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere… This ‘’Trump corollary’’ to the ‘’Monroe Doctrine’’ is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities consistent with American security interests.”

       Besides being a plain policy statement of the current administration, it is partly a ploy to immortalise the name of President Trump.

        Currently, this is all about the NSS 25.  It's open to further discussions if required. Here, I have shared with you the key points elicited in the Document that might be relevant to my current post on President Trump being erratic, inconsistent, and verbose, as reflected in his daily press conferences.  In my preceding post, I shared with you an altogether different point of view on this. I averred that we might defer our evaluation of the President to conclude if there is any ‘method in his madness’, as it appears to the man in the street. 

      In my opinion, notwithstanding what President Trump has been churning out for over a year, before the media community and in tv interviews day in and day out, these were just the threads that have been picked up and presented in the form of a comprehensive document entitled,” The National Security Strategy of the U.S., November 2025. Generally speaking, the language of the said document starkly displays a spirit of unwavering self-confidence as a superpower flowing down the past by its own right, except for the last few decades, when all occupants of the White House, irrespective of their party affiliations, corrupted the stream by surrendering the country's historical technological edge in manufacturing technology, innovation, and military strength, that led to being unusually dependent on other nations for critical resources. All in all, that has to be reversed now onward.

      Now I may invite your attention back to the highlighted part of this post one by one. Will it be a matter of stretching the imagination too far if it is held that what President Trump has been speaking loudly and in pieces has been consolidated in the form of a document in compliance with the extant law?

      i) “predatory trade practices”– Since his first day in office in White House, President Trump has left no stone unturned to convince all and sundry, how the U.S. has borne the burden of a huge trade deficit for the last few decades, allowing some nations to flourish at the cost of the U.S.  Trump's active counter measures to bring back the trading policy of the U.S. on an even keel months before the publication of the NSS, 25. He hasn't stopped at this point. He had all the justifications for weaponising his tariff rates, even for current events like the Ukraine-Russia war, which has given an opportunity to countries like India and China to purchase crude oil from the sanctioned companies of Russia with a significant discount. India suffered an enhanced tariff of 25%, though the same logic was not applied to China, for their trade relations being “complex”.

      ii)” drug and human trafficking”–  The visuals of thousands of people in handcuffs, branded as criminals and/or illegal immigrants, grabbed the eyeballs of newsroom editors and TV anchors across the globe. Those are not fake, but real, though his predecessor in office, Joe Biden, did the same with less of optics and less show of force. He also had his way to handle the issue of legal immigrants. He denounced in his own way the abuse of the H-1B facilities meant to recruit accomplished computer professionals by the American and Indian companies based in the U.S. He has already cut down the permitted number under this category, and also has come up with the “Gold Card” for companies desirous to hire foreign recruits. The irony here is that  He fired thousands of employees in the federal government and federal agencies as per the recommendations of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the leadership of the then close ally Elon Musk.

     iii) “destructive propaganda and influence operations”– President Trump spoke several times about non-state actors hijacking the country's policy framework. He did threaten the world-renowned universities of the US that unless they take disciplinary actions against faculty members and students creating ruckus in the university campus on an almost daily basis, they might be deprived of government funding. At the same time, it was made clear by the Trump administration that foreign nationals participating in such hostile demonstrations against the US involvement in the ongoing Gaza conflict might see their visas cancelled and be ousted from the soil. The NSS,2025, actually imbibes what the President has been talking about on this since his inauguration day.

      IV)” cultural subversions”– As early as January 2025, President Trump issued executive orders banning most transgender individuals from being allowed to serve in the armed forces. Besides, Trump has been vocal in criticising the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives and halted their implementation across the federal government, prompting the private sector to follow suit. These have been tools for President Trump to please the hard- core conservative constituency ever since his presidential campaign.

     V) “any other threat to our nation”-- This part is a matter of perception for  President Trump and his cabinet colleagues. For all practical purposes, this is an uncharted territory, where the administration can lord it over at their sweet will and suitable time. By this time, we all know about how American special forces captured President Maduro of Venezuela and his wife in the darkness of midnight, from their official residence in Caracas, in a joint operation executed with the active role played by more than 100 fighter planes and dozens of attacking warships, including two aircraft carriers.  Going by the American narrative, this time, the regime change was necessitated to level out the threats of drug trafficking initiated ever since Trump came into power for the second time. The rhetoric of the southern hemisphere being the “sphere of influence” of the U.S. remained somewhat subdued here.

       So far, what I have endeavoured to explain above has nothing to do with any value judgement of what President Trump has been talking about his targets and achievements, or about the NSS,’25 being a laudable security strategy of the U.S. in the days to come.

      At the end, I tend to hold that, notwithstanding his high-sounding words doled out on an almost daily basis over the pre-NSS,’25 days, he has been steadfastly working to realise his promise of “America First” and the dream of “Make America Great Again” since his very first day in the White House.

      It appears that President Trump is inclined to realise his dreams by passing executive orders invoking an Act ,that invests the POTUS with an almost unbridled powers to have his way. But then the   provisions in the said Act are available to the President only  in the event of national emergency.That's why in his first documented policy–NSS,' 25 he has made a vigorous efforts to debase all of the national governments since the end of the Cold War days.He is of the opinion that all previous administrations, irrespective of their party colours, had failed to uphold the American  suprimacy in the global eco-system, leading to a situation of an engulfing threat to America's status as the lone superpower.That vision has been considered  enough to invoke the legal provisions for him to justify his drastic actions on enhancing the  extraordinary tariffs on goods  swearing by "National Emergency" to circumvent judicial scrutiny. 

      True, as of now, the President has a thin numerical majority in both the houses of  Congress. The showdown between the Democrats and the President on the question of reduction of fund on some ongoing social security programs, presented to the legislature, virtually ended in a victory for Trump, when the Senate had to pass the interim budget to end the "government shut-down" for a record number of days in the history of the U.S as a few party members crossed the floor, to answer to the call of their conscience to end the stalemate.

      However, the legal sanctity of his actions, all performed under exercise of the executive powers of the President, is yet to be endorsed by the Courts. The prayers against the determind steps of the administration–often bordering on being too harsh– to deport the illegal immigrants, have been dismissed on many occasions.But the petitions filed by individual, organizations, members of state/central legislatures against  the imposition of higher tariffs on imported goods, by the President under his executive powers are under judicial scrutiny of the Federal Supreme Court and its verdict is eagerly awaited.

      Should such petitions succeed, the Trump administration would  be faced with its serious repercussions. Besides that may not augur well for the shaken Republican President, desperate to enhance its party representation in the Congress by ensuring a landslide victories in the upcoming med-term elections, in order to pursue his somewhat wild run in search of  "America First" and "Make America Great Again"

Comments and suggestions are cordially invited.

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