The Familiar Naivety of "America First"

On September 4th, 1940, almost a year to the day after Hitler invaded Poland, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, communists and anti-communists, joined forces to prevent America’s involvement in WWII.

They called themselves the America First Committee (AFC).

At its peak, AFC membership exceeded 800,000 people, they had 450 chapters across the United States, and they organised protests through the streets waving slogans like, “Let’s Stay Out Of Europe’s War,” and, “Why Not Peace With Hitler?"

Sure, some of their Hitler-friendly leaders turned out to be raving antisemites and would-be fascists, admittedly, Hitler wasn’t a paragon of morals and decency, and yes, millions of Europeans were busy dying to prevent the Nazis from taking over.

But the AFC was confident that a British defeat to the Nazis posed no threat to American national security, there was no need to waste their taxpayer’s dollars on military aid to the United Kingdom, after all, they assured themselves, all that fuss happening on the other side of the big, beautiful ocean had nothing to do with them.

And then, in what would remain the deadliest attack on American soil until 9/11, Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbour.

In a single day, every single battleship stationed at Pearl Harbour was either damaged or destroyed (along with three cruisers, three destroyers, and 347 aircraft), 2,403 American soldiers and civilians were killed (and another 1,178 wounded), and the AFC disbanded four days later after finally realising that Hitler wasn’t a friend to anybody who valued democracy and freedom and peace.

Ironic that the “America First” guys were the last ones to figure that out.

On February 28th, 2025, almost three years to the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and JD Vance sat down to discuss a deal to end the war.

It didn’t go great.

Zelensky called out Vance’s diplomatic naivety in front of the press, Vance hit back by (falsely) claiming Zelensky hadn’t thanked Trump “even once” for the support Biden provided (and which Trump variously described as “stupid,” “terrible,” and “incompetent”), and Trump kicked Zelensky out of the White House without a deal or his lunch, announcing that he could return when he was “ready to make peace.”

And look, I’m not here to defend Zelensky. Whatever you might think about the kind of reality-denying, crotch-sniffing sycophancy that Trump requires, everybody knows he requires it, so publicly criticising his plan (and calling his favourite Russian dictator a “terrorist”) was probably not the move.

Heck, Trump isn’t even the first president to call Zelensky out for showing insufficient gratitude. Biden reportedly gave Zelensky an earful in 2022 for demanding more support moments after Biden announced a $1 billion aid deal.

But lest we forget, the war in Ukraine isn’t about Zelensky’s personality or his wardrobe choices or how enthusiastically he kisses Trump’s ring, it’s about whether sovereign nations get to make their own decisions about their alliances, it’s about whether a country that takes American citizens hostage is trustworthy, it’s about whether a political system dominated by oligarchs, rife with corruption, and run by a guy who has shredded his country’s constitution to stay in power, should be a role model for the United States.

Donald Trump has been unusually clear about where he stands on questions like these.

Not only because he described Putin’s invented justifications for invading Ukraine as “genius” and claimed that Putin’s latest bombardment of Ukraine is, “what anyone would do.”

Not only because he directed the United States’ UN delegate to side with Russia, Belarus, Sudan, and North Korea in opposing the demand for Russia to withdraw.

Not only because every single punitive action he’s taken has been against the country that was invaded and every justification he’s made has been in defence of the one that could end the war instantly.

But because his rhetoric about taking over Greenland “one way or the other” and ethically cleansing the Palestinians so he can “own Gaza,” not to mention his increasingly frequent “jokes” about staying in power for a third term are all pulled from the same dictators handbook.

But the most offensive part of all this isn’t watching Trump align the United States with dictators and murderers, it’s not the hypocrisy of lecturing Zelensky about manners while slandering him as a dictator and parroting Russian disinformation about his approval ratings, it’s not even the constant lies about how much military aid the United States has provided or the failure to understand how that military aid works.

It’s the fact that for all Trump’s disdain for NATO, when the United States became the first (and still the only) country in history to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and George W. Bush called on NATO to help him fight, they did.

All told, fifty-one nations provided funds, weapons and the lives of their soldiers fighting the war in Afghanistan.

Ukraine, even though it wasn’t and still isn’t a member of NATO, joined the “coalition of the willing,” sending over 6,000 troops to fight in Iraq and Kuwait to support the fighting there.

None of them demanded cash or mineral rights or the grovelling supplications of the president, nobody blamed the U.S. for being attacked or sided with Osama bin Laden. They figured out, immediately, whose side they were on.

And now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure JD Vance hasn’t said “thank you” even once.