The Republican Party’s Foreign Policy Positioning: From Trump to Trumpists?

Trump’s presidency has been widely perceived as a turning point in US foreign policy, with a definitive shift away from the previous bipartisan consensus towards a more nationalist attitude. According to previous analyses, Trump’s populist leadership constitutes an anomaly and was responsible for this shift, taking the GOP by storm and imposing his world views and erratic style on the party. Following this view, it is often assumed that many Republicans just ‘went along’ with Trump’s policies and rhetoric to profit from his extensive voter base. This paper challenges this notion of an ‘opportunistic short-term change in foreign policy positioning’ of GOP members during Trump’s presidency, and asks whether it (still) holds under present circumstances. Instead, it is posited that the Republicans’ departure from the bipartisan consensus has been accelerated by Trump’s presidency – having a lasting influence on the Republican Party. Considering the current war in Ukraine, and since the bipartisan consensus entails the maintaining of alliances and curbing the influence of rivals (e.g., Russia), a particular focus will be on the development of the GOP’s policy towards NATO and Russia. By drawing on discourse-bound identity theory and discourse analysis, the GOP’s discourse regarding foreign policy issues is expected to have substantially changed following Trump’s presidency. The paper will analyse the statements of prominent Republicans on foreign policy after Biden’s election, compare them to Trump’s positions on these issues and identify whether there is an overall shift in rhetoric and positions.