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Opinion

What Exactly Is Meant by ‘America First’?

What Exactly Is Meant by ‘America First’?
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Commentary

The primary slogan of the Trump movement is the simple, now-iconic appeal to “Make America Great Again.” Indeed, “MAGA” is so ubiquitous that it is now a metonym for the movement itself. But if the Trump movement has a second catchphrase after “MAGA,” it would be “America First.” Donald Trump himself routinely vows that he is an “America First” politician. Myriad Republican congressional candidates now tout themselves as “America First,” typically with an eye toward securing a coveted Trump endorsement. And many prominent conservative commentators, often with close ties to Trump’s orbit, frequently beat the drums of “America First.”

Josh Hammer
Josh Hammer
Author
Josh Hammer is opinion editor of Newsweek, a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation, counsel and policy advisor for the Internet Accountability Project, a syndicated columnist through Creators, and a contributing editor for Anchoring Truths. A frequent pundit and essayist on political, legal, and cultural issues, Hammer is a constitutional attorney by training. He hosts “The Josh Hammer Show,” a Newsweek podcast, and co-hosts the Edmund Burke Foundation's “NatCon Squad” podcast. Hammer is a college campus speaker through Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Young America's Foundation, as well as a law school campus speaker through the Federalist Society. Prior to Newsweek and The Daily Wire, where he was an editor, Hammer worked at a large law firm and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Hammer has also served as a John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute and a fellow with the James Wilson Institute. Hammer graduated from Duke University, where he majored in economics, and from the University of Chicago Law School. He lives in Florida, but remains an active member of the State Bar of Texas.
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