U.S. News
Trump Shifts Security Focus to U.S. Borders
Clear Facts
- The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy prioritizes U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere, identifying mass migration as the leading security threat.
- The document marks a move away from post-9/11 policies centered on Islamic terrorism and the Middle East.
- The strategy introduces a revived Monroe Doctrine approach and strengthens border security and anti-cartel operations as core missions.
The new National Security Strategy underscores a fundamental redirection in U.S. defense policy, aiming to end decades of Middle East–focused decision-making.
It identifies migration and criminal cartels as principal threats to American safety, pushing for stronger borders and a shift of military resources closer to home.
“The days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy in both long-term planning and day-to-day execution are thankfully over — not because the Middle East no longer matters, but because it is no longer the constant irritant, and potential source of imminent catastrophe, that it once was,” the document says.
“It is rather emerging as a place of partnership, friendship, and investment — a trend that should be welcomed and encouraged.”
The plan announces a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, aiming to block hostile foreign powers from establishing influence in the Americas.
This shift includes reducing U.S. military engagement in far-off regions in favor of confronting problems like cartel violence and foreign intervention near American borders.
Alex Plitsas, a former Army intelligence officer, questioned focusing on hemispheric threats, warning, “The most significant threats to the United States — whether terrorism or near-peer adversaries — are not in the Western Hemisphere, but in Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia, and Eastern Asia.”
He added that past efforts to ignore overseas threats “have yet to work as a strategy.”
The document links border security and migration to new national defense priorities and points to instability in Latin America as a direct threat to American safety and prosperity.
Officials now describe the Western Hemisphere as the “front line” for border protection and supply chain reliability.
Emily Harding, a senior fellow, compared the Middle East’s ongoing risks to a line from The Godfather: “You try to get out, and then it sucks you back in,” she said.
She noted, “Islamic terrorism does seem more contained than at any point in the last 20 years, but the Middle East has a way of pulling the United States back in.”
The strategy’s release followed security events including arrests of Afghan nationals suspected of terrorism, which the administration linked to migration and vetting failures more than to global jihadist threats.
Terrorism, once central in previous security documents, is now combined with border and migration risks in the new strategy.
The document emphasizes, “We want to protect this country, its people, its territory, its economy, and its way of life from military attack and hostile foreign influence, whether espionage, predatory trade practices, drug and human trafficking, destructive propaganda and influence operations, cultural subversion, or any other threat to our nation.”
It continues, “We must protect our country from invasion, not just from unchecked migration but from cross-border threats such as terrorism, drugs, espionage, and human trafficking.”
The document only briefly mentions Islamic terrorism, stating, “We must remain wary of resurgent Islamist terrorist activity in parts of Africa while avoiding any long-term American presence or commitments.”
Border deployments, targeted anti-cartel operations, and consideration of direct military actions near the U.S. are highlighted as part of the response.
Plitsas warned, “The terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland remains — the groups and locations posing the most significant threats have simply shifted.”
He cited ISIS-Khorasan in Central Asia and parts of Africa where terrorist groups “operate with relative impunity.”
The new approach asserts that protecting America begins by securing its own borders and curtailing outside influence in the hemisphere.
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