Analysis: As Trump takes out world leaders, democracy takes a back seat | CNN Politics

When the first Trump administration authored its national security strategy in 2017, democracy figured prominently. It labeled democracy something that “we hold dear.” It said the democratization of key allies was one of the “greatest triumphs of American statecraft.” It said the Western Hemisphere stood “on the cusp of prosperity and peace, built upon democracy.” When the second Trump administration released the same document in December, much had changed. Democracy got about one-quarter of the mentions – in some cases actually to downplay its importance. The United States now aimed to build stable and beneficial relationships with other countries, it said, “without imposing on them democratic or other social change that differs widely from their traditions and histories.” It was, as The New York Times noted, a massive departure from decades of American foreign policy. Trump has now taken out the leaders of two different countries in the three months since that document was released – in both cases giving him great power to chart the future of those countries’ governments. And in both cases, he’s been arguably even more dismissive of democracy than the docu