Richard Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany and acting national intelligence director, put his finger on one of the biggest sores of President Trump’s first term: The idea that so-called “nationalism” is by nature a bad thing.
In his speech on the third night of the Republican National Convention, Grenell said the president “rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it ‘nationalist.'”
He continued, “That tells you all you need to know. The D.C. crowd thinks when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they’re insulting him, as if the American president isn’t supposed to base foreign policy on America’s national interests.”
Nobody can clearly say what “nationalist” or “populist” means — the media pretend those, like all things Trump, are synonymous with “racist. But if we’re going to pretend they have significance, Trump can go ahead and own it all.
If it’s “nationalist” to avoid entangling us in a militant war with China or Russia (or both), wherein America’s young, black, white, Latino and Asian men are sent to die in what will inevitably be a stalemate, that should be an OK position to take.
The word “nationalist” is supposed to be embarrassing. Richard Grenell showed it doesn’t have to be.
