Make America Great Again: Donald Trump and Redefining the U.S. Role in the World

In this article, I explore presidential candidate Trump’s rhetoric concerning America’s role in the world. I argue Trump’s rhetoric broke with the post-World War II consensus of maintaining and extending U.S. globalism. I further assert that Trump modified America’s exceptionalist arguments that served as rhetorical support for this consensus. Trump’s rhetoric suggested the United States’ current path in foreign policy was in a state of chaos that needed to be curtailed. His rejection of this postwar consensus and turn toward an “America First” foreign policy would restore order to the United States’ foreign policy universe. Trump’s rhetoric set to redefine the United States’s role in the 21st century but has serious implications for the leadership position it has taken for the past 75 years