On the London School of Economics’ The Ballpark podcast, Walter Russell Mead discusses President Donald Trump’s “highly activist” foreign policy and his approach to the Western Hemisphere as a strategic foundation for American power. Mead also analyzes the performative politics of Trump’s “America First” rhetoric.
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President Donald Trump delivers a speech about the economy at Rockland Community College Fieldhouse in Suffern, New York, on May 22, 2026. (Getty Images)