President Trump’s 10 best foreign policy moves of 2017

President Trump came into the Oval Office without much experience in the foreign policy realm. However, he has been able to accomplish some major initiatives this year, working toward slamming the door shut on Barack Obama’s disastrous foreign policy.

Here are 10 of President Trump’s best foreign policy moves in year one of his tenure.

1. Sticking it to the United Nations.

The totalitarian menaces at the United Nations are finally facing consequences for turning Turtle Bay into an anti-American hatefest. Last week, over 100 nations challenged the sovereignty of the United States, voting to condemn America for where it places its embassy in Israel. President Trump and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley decided that enough was enough and that the United States would no longer act as the world’s piñata. They slashed U.N. funding by ten percent, starting next year.

2. Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

For years, Republican and Democratic administrations have promised to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And for years, each administration has reneged on those promises. President Trump not only recognized Jerusalem, he has also ordered the State Department to begin the process of moving the embassy.

3. Turning up the pressure on Iran.

In October, President Trump imposed crippling sanctions on Iran’s militant Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is charged with exporting Iran’s revolutionary fundamentalist ideology worldwide. It is responsible for sending bombs into Iraq that have taken the lives of approximately 500 U.S. service members there, according to military officials. Moreover, the IRGC coordinates with groups like Hezbollah to plot terror attacks against Americans.

4. Calling out Qatar for funding terror.

The tiny Gulf state of Qatar has become a regional menace. Even though it still hosts an American military base, Doha officials continue to prop up terrorist groups like Hamas, al Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood. President Trump has attempted to hold Qatar accountable for terror financing.

5. Releasing a comprehensive national security strategy.

Just before the end of the year, President Trump released a Reaganesque national security strategy that called for a return to “peace through strength.” It properly identified North Korea, China, Iran, Russia, and Sunni jihadist groups as the top U.S. adversaries, while also including a battle plan for how the U.S. strategy must defeat the ideas of our chief enemies.

6. Breaking free from the “peace process” cartel.

For years, foreign policy “experts” in Washington retained a complete monopoly on how best to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The wisdom of the peace process cartel was never to be questioned, for fear of being labeled an extremist. Yet decades have passed, and efforts to impose a two-state solution have entirely failed. President Trump has made it clear that he is not attached to any particular ideology. A stalwart ally of Israel, he remains open to a variety of solutions involving disputed territories in the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria).

7. Recognizing the rapidly shifting world alliance structure.

The world as we know it is rapidly changing. Gulf nations are quietly accepting the fact that Israel is here to stay and that teaming up to tackle Iranian expansion is the right move. Western Europe continues to import millions of migrants, who are rapidly changing the culture of countries with thousands of years of history. At the same time, some Eastern European nations remain steadfast to their heritage and to the values of the West, rejecting the importation of migrants. North Korea and Iran continue to get closer to the bomb. Turkey, ostensibly a NATO ally, looks more and more like an adversary each day. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others are in the midst of an unforeseen battle against Islamic totalitarianism. And the list goes on.

President Trump entered the White House offering a blank slate to the nations of the world. He may find that by the end of his term, the U.S. may have more in common with countries like Georgia and Poland than, say, France and Germany.

8. Defeating ISIS.

President Trump campaigned on delivering a crushing blow to ISIS. He has made good on that promise. According to defense officials, ISIS now has less than 1,000 fighters left on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq.

9. Getting serious about East Asia.

Both China and North Korea have gotten the upper hand over U.S. diplomats and policy makers for the entirety of the 21st century thus far, and even before that. Thanks to appeasement-minded policies of the past several administrations, North Korea now has a sophisticated nuclear program. Additionally, China continues to steal billions of dollars of U.S. intellectual property and government secrets. President Trump has taken a more aggressive line on North Korea and has pledged not to accept a status quo that allows China to continue to leverage its trade relationship with the U.S. and undermine America’s standing in the world.

10. Fighting the bureaucracy.

The unchecked behemoth that is the civil service bureaucracy, which some refer to as the “deep state,” has acted to undermine the president’s agenda time and time again. The vast majority of government employees are leftist partisans, particularly in the 99-percent Democrat-populated State Department. President Trump recognizes this reality and has constantly raised awareness about the need to call out these unelected bureaucrats who seek to impose their own agenda on America.

Click here for President Trump’s 10 worst foreign policy decisions of 2017

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