Opinion | Donald Trump’s South China Sea policy doesn’t resolve contradictions – it embraces them
Robert Delaney says that the US president can trumpet ‘America first’ isolationism one day and a willingness to confront China over its maritime expansion the next, and sell both positions to his base
This one, delivered in a commencement address to US Naval Academy graduates, should be as troubling to Beijing as his negotiating tactics with respect to Pyongyang.
“We’re sharpening the fighting edge of everything from marine infantry squads to combat ships to deliver maximum lethal force,” Trump told the graduating class of 2018.
“The enemy has to know we have them. And we are recommitting to this fundamental truth: we are a maritime nation. And being a maritime nation, we’re surrounded by sea. We must always dominate that sea. We will always dominate the oceans.”