Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump Turns a JFK Phrase Against His Message

The president's "new decree" of America first is a striking change in foreign policy.

January 20, 2017 at 8:36 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

America First.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/Pool -- Getty Images

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The crucial passage in President Donald Trump’s inaugural address Friday tracked John F. Kennedy’s swearing-in speech, with one huge difference: Trump’s America First message was 180 degrees away from Kennedy’s Cold War embrace of global leadership.

The combination of homage to Kennedy and subversion of his liberal internationalist vision tells you a lot about what Trump’s presidency is going to look like -- much more than the populist rhetoric about giving America back to the people.