David E. Sanger

But it also ends up becoming a kind of Rorschach test of what an administration's priorities are.

And in this particular case, as you read this document, it's only about 30 pages long, the thing that really strikes you is that it is a retreat

from the post-World War II bipartisan understanding that the role of the United States is to defend liberty, support democracies around the world, support our allies.

And there's an absence in this strategy of a sort of moral mission for the United States to defend human rights, to defend free speech or free press.

Almost all of that is gone.

And instead, there's one really telling line.

that's on page 12 of the strategy.

It says, the days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.

Well, our priority is the latest interpretation of America first.

And that means emphasizing not only trade, but making America wealthy.

How many times have you heard President Trump say that?

He said it again on Tuesday night in Pennsylvania, that he would make America rich again on its way to making it great again.

It is a document that is very heavy on how the United States will try to order the world for its benefit.

Well, the president's concept here is that our greatest source of national strength is being the economic leader, the technological leader.

Now, parts of this are quite common with Democrats and other Republican presidents.

You saw Joe Biden try to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.

But Trump is taking this to the next level here, basically saying that all the policies of the U.S.

should be geared toward improving our wealth and our economic security.

And he focuses many more pages on that than the traditional issues of national security.

And what really struck me, Natalie, is this is not only different from most of the national security strategies we've seen since the end of World War II, it's dramatically different from Donald Trump's own national security strategy when he first came to office in 2017.