“Tweet and Retreat”? President Trump's Pakistan Aid Freeze

Abstract

President Trump is being criticized for aggressive tweets using his personal twitter account on U.S. foreign policy issues of a great strategic significance. There’s continuing debate over whether or not President Trump’s tweets have any significant meaning in context of U.S. foreign policy. This research paper begins by examining a traditional U.S. grand strategy – preponderance, reassurance, integration and nuclear inhibition – safeguarded by the “Blob” in guiding the United States foreign policy. It challenges some U.S. foreign policy experts and scholars’ argument, due to an unalterable and irreversible nature of U.S. foreign policy’s fundamentals, there’s a consistency and continuity in a traditional U.S. grand strategy under President Trump’s rhetoric “America First”. President Trump’s tweets, statements and actions highlight a major shift in the United States foreign policy. This paper also critically explores and examines a “Tweet and Retreat” foreign policy approach - Are President Trump’s tweets all rant and no strategy? To debunk the traditional U.S. foreign policy claims, this paper uses a case study of President Trump’s Pakistan aid freeze tweet. The case study shows that there’s a visible cohesion and synchronization in President Trump’s statements and actions in collaboration with other institutions including U.S. Congress. Overall, this major research paper demystifies President Trump’s heated rhetoric, actions and their strategic implications on U.S. foreign policy.