American Imperialism in the Age of Trump

Abstract

Donald Trump came to power promising to rejuvenate the US economy and reconfigure global geopolitics to sustain the US-led unipolar order captured in his slogan, Make America Great Again. Economically, he has identified tariffs as a key instrument to punish countries perceived to have exploited US market openness. Geopolitically, his strategy has aimed to compel US allies to assume greater burdens while recalibrating relations with emerging powers, particularly China and Russia. This article provides a structural analysis of Trump’s grand strategy, conceptualized as a New Imperial Deal. It argues that the zero-sum logic underpinning this strategy generated internal contradictions, making its objectives largely unattainable. Resistance from allies alongside the emergence of alternative economic and geopolitical configurations led by China, Russia, and BRICS has challenged the foundations of the US imperial project. These developments have accelerated the relative decline of US international power and opened greater space for multipolarity. However, whether this space develops into a more durable multipolar order depends largely on the willingness of emerging and middle powers to overcome their divergent interests and develop forms of cooperation that can generate mutually beneficial outcomes.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. International Critical Thought, 2026 · DOI ↗