Trump’s Goodbye to Soft Power

“When we throw a punch, we throw a punch hard”

President Trump’s commencement address at West Point contained a revelation that got eclipsed by his bizarre asides about short golfers and trophy wives (lol). He made it clear that the era of soft power is over.

“The military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime in any place,” the President said to the graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (commonly known as West Point).

“If the United States or its allies are ever threatened or attacked, the Army will obliterate our opponents with overwhelming strength and devastating force.” 

By contrast, consider then-President Biden’s West Point speech last year and its exact opposite emphasis. Biden touted the military’s role in “strengthening our alliances,” “strategic partnerships” and “urgent diplomacy” in the Middle East, citing the construction of the Gaza aid pier “in record time to increase lifesaving aid to the Palestinians.” (The pier in fact delivered barely any aid before being dismantled after just 20 days.) 

“Never forget: America is the strongest when we lead not only by our example of our power but by the power of our example,” Biden said, summarizing his soft power philosophy.

Trump’s speech could not be more different.

“My administration has begun a colossal buildup of the United States Armed forces,” Trump bragged. He then mentioned his request for a record “$1 trillion military budget,” adding: “Some people say, ‘Could you cut it back?’ I said, ‘I'm not cutting 10 cents.’” 

What Trump has unquestionably cut is soft power: things like USAID, Voice of America, the Peace Corps, the Global Engagement Center, and other elements of American diplomacy, humanitarian assistance, nation building and democracy promotion. The purpose of each of these tools, as Trump sees it, can be achieved by military force.

As for that “colossal buildup,” the trillion dollars won’t change much.  The Army, Navy and Air Force won’t appreciably grow, with much of the money in the end going to the industrial complex. Investments will be made in nuclear weapons, in a new bomber and fighter jet, in drones and space and AI and cybersecurity, and the like; all of the things, in fact, that point to a very different military in the future, one not based on brute force.

Yet behind the hyperbolic Trumpy talk, there is a colossal shift happening, most obviously here at home, along the southern border and in the war on immigration. The shift is also happening overseas, in ways hardly being discussed.

Take Iran as an example. The Pentagon deployed the largest number of B-2 bombers in history, as we previously reported, to a base in Diego Garcia, to signal to Iran that confrontation won’t look like it did in the Obama and Biden years. In Yemen, Trump’s ordered an increase in the intensity of U.S. attacks on the Houthis, another signal to Iran. Fighting in Syria and Iraq, though at a lower pace, has intensified, along with support for Israel and special operations throughout the Middle East and South Asia.

In Africa, the administration has also increased the intensity of its operations, particularly in Somalia. Acting Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James W. Kilby provided a rare hint of the enormity of these military operations in a recent Council on Foreign Relations discussion.

“They launched the largest air strike in the history of the world—a hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds from a single aircraft carrier—into Somalia,” Kilby said, referring to an operation carried out by the USS Harry Truman Strike Group in February. 

To give you a sense of the scale here, a swarm of 16 U.S. aircraft reportedly dropped 124,000 pounds of ordnance in under two minutes, targeting senior ISIS-Somalia fighters in a series of cave complexes, according to Africa Command.

And what Trump has eliminated in these strikes, again signaling that soft power is dead, is what his administration thinks is excessive worry about civilian casualties, as one senior intelligence official told us.

In other words, soft power is out and the warfighter is in, to use a favorite term of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (He’s tweeted the word nearly a dozen times from his official account.)

While Trump was speaking at West Point, Vice President J.D. Vance spoke to graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Vance said that the Trump doctrine was not to resort to military force reflexively. But once the decision is made to use force, Vance said, they’re all-in.

“We ought to be cautious in deciding to throw a punch, but when we throw a punch, we throw a punch hard,” Vance said in his remarks:

“We pursued that goal through overwhelming force against Houthi military targets. In just the first 100 days of the administration, we were able to reach a ceasefire and a conflict that had been ongoing for nearly two years. That's how military power should be used decisively, with a clear objective. We ought to be cautious in deciding to throw a punch, but when we throw a punch, we throw a punch hard and we do it decisively, and that's exactly what we may ask you to do.”

In characterizing Trump and his administration, the rusty old language of “hawks” and “doves,” of “isolationists” and “internationalists” doesn’t really work.

“As much as you wanna fight,” Trump said, speaking to the crowd of future generals and admirals, “I'd rather do it without having to fight. I just wanna look at them and have them fold.”

Correction: An earlier draft of this story quoted Trump as saying, “The job of the US Armed Forces is not to host drag shows to transform foreign cultures, but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun.” Thankfully, he said “or to spread democracy…”

— Edited by William M. Arkin