Politics

Trump’s Retro Imperialism

The president holds some misguided views about wealth, power, and natural resources.

First published in The Atlantic on January 5, 2026.

by Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic

January 8, 2026 | reading time: 4 Min.

President Donald Trump’s fans like to cheer on his most audacious moves by declaring, “I voted for this.” It is safe to assume, though, that very few people who pulled the lever for Trump in 2024 expected that he would soon announce that he had seized control over Venezuela. One of Trump’s most popular qualities has always been his supposed opposition to foreign wars, his anti-imperialist isolationism. Yet J. D. Vance, who once wrote an op-ed headlined “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars,” now declares the new war in Venezuela to be a glorious and necessary exercise of America Firstism.