Bye-bye America First?

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel in its war with Iran and to strike at the Iranian nuclear programme has shocked the neo-isolationist members of the Maga (Make America Great Again) movement. They have counted on him to remain committed to his America-First pledge of refraining from intervening in Middle Eastern wars.

But then the same “America Firsters” were applauding leaked news reports indicating that the Trump administration would be denying Ukraine much needed weapons, including Patriot air-defence and Hellfire missiles, the excuse being that US stockpiles of these arms were in short supply.

The driver of the Ukraine arms denial was Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defence, one of the leading neo-isolationists in the administration. He has argued that the US Patriot stocks were too low and that American resources must be preserved for a possible war with China.