President Trump’s Immature Realism

Abstract

In this study the author examines U.S. president Donald Trump’s “principled realism”, offering a conceptual framework to the U.S. foreign policy witnessed in 2017. Therefore, the basic principles of realism, their role and presence in the foreign policy of the Trump Administration are discussed. While the President himself and his advisors have adopted such fundamental realist principles as the selfishness of the nation state and security underpinned by power, in practice these make up only an immature form of realism. The practical realization of realist policies is hindered by the lack of a statesman’s prestige on behalf of president Trump both at home and abroad, the latter especially in Congress, which therefore claims a greater role in formulating U.S. foreign policy.