Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and the other supposed patriots stuffing themselves into the far-right clown car tell us that Trump walked away from the America First movement. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If by “America First” one means the doctrine associated with the America First Committee (AFC) of 1940–41, then Trump was never an America Firster. A man cannot walk away from something he was never a part of.
The AFC was fundamentally non-interventionist/isolationist: its central purpose was to keep the United States out of World War II. American Firsters opposed Lend-Lease. Supplying Britain risked drawing the United States into war; America could best protect itself by avoiding foreign conflicts and entangling commitments.
We know how that turned out. It was a disaster. Isolationism allowed the Axis Powers to conquer more territory and entrench power. It made it more costly for America when we finally joined the war. Moreover, Pearl Harbor may have never happened if the AFC had been less persuasive. Tens of millions of lives would not have been lost had the US entered the war earlier.
At its peak, the America First Committee had more than 800,000 members. But its reputation was damaged by the antisemitic and pro-fascist rhetoric of some of its prominent figures. Sound familiar? This is what the new crowd represents. Its isolation is coupled with an antipathy towards the Jews.
However, the phrase “America First” has not always meant isolationism. Before the AFC, it conveyed nationalism, economic protection (tariffs, etc.), and American interests over international obligations. Republicans advocated this position in opposition to Woodrow Wilson’s globalism, i.e., the transnational corporate project today in ascendancy. The project’s ideology is reflected in the progressive movement. The AFC hijacked the name for its own purposes.
The original meaning describes Trump. We don’t have to infer this. Trump has put the matter explicitly. He has always maintained that he is “America First” but not isolationist.
Trump’s policies confirm it. He has not withdrawn America from the world. His administration maintains a global military presence. Trump has conducted military operations against ISIS, launched missile strikes against Syria, confronted Iran, continues to operate through NATO, and has repeatedly used American economic power to shape the world.
The Trump administration’s own description of America First emphasizes “direct, robust, and meaningful engagement with the world,” stressing that America will lead in pursuit of its interests. Trump used this phrase during his first address to a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017.
We might describe Trump’s approach as “transactional nationalism.” The basic idea is that the United States should engage the world when it serves American interests. Alliances, international institutions, traditional diplomatic conventions, or treaties should not dictate those interests.
The President reiterated his philosophy in his January 20, 2025, America First Policy Directive, which instructs the State Department to make American citizens and interests the priority of US foreign policy.
Greene, Massie, and their associates lie to Americans when they say Trump betrayed the principle of putting America first. The far right is America First in the AFC isolationist sense, right down to the antisemitic and pro-fascist rhetoric. We see this in its support for the Islamic Republic of Iran and paranoid conspiracies about Zionist control of US foreign policy.
Those who turned their back on MAGA are the second coming of the America First Committee. The first coming opposed war with fascism because of Jew hatred. The second coming opposes war against Islamofascism for the same reason. Different generation, same stupidity, same danger.
I’m America First in the original meaning of the term. America First is the DNA of the Republican Party and, before that, was expressed by Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay.
Hamilton was fundamentally a commercial nationalist. He believed American economic development required a strong federal government and access to international commerce. He envisioned the United States as a major industrial power. The nation should not remain primarily an exporter of agricultural commodities. The United States should not be an underdeveloped periphery in the world capitalist economy. A great republic should aspire to more than playing a subservient role in the world.
Madison understood that economic independence required military strength. A commercially powerful United States needed a navy able to protect shipping.
Clay believed all this, too. His foreign policy was explicitly nationalist and expansionist. He understood that putting America first meant projecting US hegemony abroad.
What about attitudes towards the Jews? Here’s where it really gets interesting in light of the rise of antisemitism on the right. Hamilton had an unusually favorable attitude toward Jews. Most striking is a manuscript in Hamilton’s own hand, preserved by the American Jewish Historical Society. “The progress of the Jews,” he wrote, “is entirely out of the ordinary course of human affairs.”
Hamilton didn’t see Jewish success as the work of conspiracy. Rather, it was the industriousness of Jews and divine providence that made the group so extraordinary. On that last point, he reasoned that Jewish survival over the millennia against great odds must have resulted from divine providence. He argued that the explanation for this is found in the Bible.
In a legal case in which Hamilton defended Jewish witnesses against an explicitly anti-Jewish argument, opposing counsel attempted to discredit the witnesses based on their being Jews. Hamilton responded by invoking Jewish biblical history and insisting that Jews were entitled to exactly the same justice as Christians. In fact, Hamilton argued that the history of Jewish persecution was itself an indictment of religious prejudice.
Hamilton had substantial personal contact with New York’s Jewish community. He represented numerous Jewish merchants and maintained close relationships with members of Shearith Israel.
Hamilton and Clay were America Firsters before the term was coined. When I say I am America First, I mean it in that sense. I reject the politics of those who now claim that name. Greene saw he way out the door. Massie was rejected by voters. In their eyes, Hamilton would be seen as a Jewish stooge. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hamilton saw in the Jews what any person free of envy and paranoia sees: a people to be defended and emulated.
Greene and Massie are not really America Firsters. They are isolationists, antisemites, and Islamophiles. We know where those politics take us. In the final analysis, they are un-American. No real patriot should support them.
