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Donald Trump: The Making of a World View
“When Donald Trump enters the White House, he will do so with a worldview that has been constantly advanced and relatively consistently articulated in countless statements over the past three decades. Don't say he didn't warn you.”
On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump won the American presidential election, to the joy of some and the shock of many across the globe.
Now that Trump is Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful country on Earth, Americans and non-Americans alike have been left wondering what that means for the world.
It has been widely claimed that Trump’s foreign policy views are impulsive, inconsistent and that they were improvised on the campaign trail.
Drawing on interviews from as far back as 1980, the historians Charlie Laderman and Brendan Simms show that this assumption is dangerously false.
Laderman and Simms reveal that Trump has had a consistent position on international trade and America’s alliances since he first flirted with the idea of running for president in the late 1980s. Furthermore, his foreign policy views have deep roots in American history.
Trump will not necessarily enact these positions at once when he is sworn in. Many presidents reverse positions when faced with the responsibility for high office.
However, as Henry Kissinger emphasised, there is little time to learn on the job and policymakers will primarily consume the intellectual capital that they bring to the office.
This book sketches out the worldview that Trump brings to the Oval Office, assembling the sources so that readers can also form their own view of it. And while Trump has shown remarkable consistency over time, there have been some major policy shifts over the years.
Donald Trump: The Making of a World View will reveal on what basis and under what circumstances Trump changes his mind.
For Trump, almost every international problem that has confronted the United States is explained by the idiocy of its leaders.
After decades of dismissing America’s leaders as fools and denouncing their diplomacy, Trump now must prove that he can do better.
Over the past three decades, he has been laying out in interviews, articles, books and tweets what amounts to a foreign policy philosophy.
This book reveals how the worldview of the 45th President of the United States was formed, what might result if it is applied in policy terms and the potential consequences for the rest of the world.
‘This book does a great service in identifying the genesis of President Trump's worldview, based on his words, and considering its likely impact on the future of American foreign policy and the western alliance.’ – Professor John Bew, author of Realpolitik: A History
‘In this insightful study, Laderman and Simms expose the contours of Donald Trump's thinking on foreign policy and explore its roots in US history since 1945. This book refutes the widespread view that Trump can simply be dismissed as an improviser and a showman. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Trump presidency and what it means for the rest of us.’ - Sir Christopher Clark, author of Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Brendan Simms is a Professor in History of European International Relations at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Unfinest Hour (shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize), Three Victories and a Defeat, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, and Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation.
Charlie Laderman is a Lecturer in International History at King’s College London and currently a Harrington Faculty Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Sharing the Burden: Armenia, Humanitarian Intervention and the Search for an Anglo-America Alliance.
On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump won the American presidential election, to the joy of some and the shock of many across the globe.
Now that Trump is Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful country on Earth, Americans and non-Americans alike have been left wondering what that means for the world.
It has been widely claimed that Trump’s foreign policy views are impulsive, inconsistent and that they were improvised on the campaign trail.
Drawing on interviews from as far back as 1980, the historians Charlie Laderman and Brendan Simms show that this assumption is dangerously false.
Laderman and Simms reveal that Trump has had a consistent position on international trade and America’s alliances since he first flirted with the idea of running for president in the late 1980s. Furthermore, his foreign policy views have deep roots in American history.
Trump will not necessarily enact these positions at once when he is sworn in. Many presidents reverse positions when faced with the responsibility for high office.
However, as Henry Kissinger emphasised, there is little time to learn on the job and policymakers will primarily consume the intellectual capital that they bring to the office.
This book sketches out the worldview that Trump brings to the Oval Office, assembling the sources so that readers can also form their own view of it. And while Trump has shown remarkable consistency over time, there have been some major policy shifts over the years.
Donald Trump: The Making of a World View will reveal on what basis and under what circumstances Trump changes his mind.
For Trump, almost every international problem that has confronted the United States is explained by the idiocy of its leaders.
After decades of dismissing America’s leaders as fools and denouncing their diplomacy, Trump now must prove that he can do better.
Over the past three decades, he has been laying out in interviews, articles, books and tweets what amounts to a foreign policy philosophy.
This book reveals how the worldview of the 45th President of the United States was formed, what might result if it is applied in policy terms and the potential consequences for the rest of the world.
‘This book does a great service in identifying the genesis of President Trump's worldview, based on his words, and considering its likely impact on the future of American foreign policy and the western alliance.’ – Professor John Bew, author of Realpolitik: A History
‘In this insightful study, Laderman and Simms expose the contours of Donald Trump's thinking on foreign policy and explore its roots in US history since 1945. This book refutes the widespread view that Trump can simply be dismissed as an improviser and a showman. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Trump presidency and what it means for the rest of us.’ - Sir Christopher Clark, author of Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Brendan Simms is a Professor in History of European International Relations at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Unfinest Hour (shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize), Three Victories and a Defeat, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, and Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation.
Charlie Laderman is a Lecturer in International History at King’s College London and currently a Harrington Faculty Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Sharing the Burden: Armenia, Humanitarian Intervention and the Search for an Anglo-America Alliance.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 24, 2017
27 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Brendan Simms
33 books65 followersBrendan Peter Simms is Professor of the History of International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. Simms studied at Trinity College Dublin, where he was elected a scholar in history in 1986, before completing his doctoral dissertation, Anglo-Prussian relations, 1804-1806: The Napoleonic Threat, at Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Tim Blanning in 1993. A Fellow of Peterhouse, he lectures and leads seminars on international history since 1945
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 10, 2018
The key takeaways from this book:
- Trump has always had a very narrow and superficial understanding of world politics. Said understanding was very little affected by what was going on in the 'bigger picture' he claimed to see: he had the same complaints and the same fears both when America was supposedly 'losing' the Cold War, and when the country was the uncontested power in the world system; what he says now about China he was saying about Japan in the 80s etc. On the plus side, he is definitely consistent
- Despite the above, Trump is good at spotting 'storm clouds': he predicted the fall of the USSR a year before it happened, and was warning in 2000, a year before 9/11, that Osama bin Laden was a serious threat
- He routinely overestimates his abilities: the president who refused to receive daily security briefings because he is "like, smart", was claiming in 1984 that he could learn all about nuclear missiles in "an hour-and-a-half" and negotiate on the topic with the Soviets
- Trump was always susceptible to the "CNN effect", hence why we should not be surprised that Fox News has such a profound effect on him
- Trump lies, even to himself. I believe his concern for America is real, I believe his bombastic patriotism is truly heartfelt, but that doesn't stop him from seeking his own self-interest. A good example is his attitude regarding Cuba: he was paying good money for advance access to the Cuban market should the embargo be lifted while claiming publicly that lifting it would be a moral degradation for the United States
- Despite wanting to "make America great again", Trump is turning the USA from the power into a power by destroying the complex and fragile web of alliances successive administrations built
- Trump has always had a very narrow and superficial understanding of world politics. Said understanding was very little affected by what was going on in the 'bigger picture' he claimed to see: he had the same complaints and the same fears both when America was supposedly 'losing' the Cold War, and when the country was the uncontested power in the world system; what he says now about China he was saying about Japan in the 80s etc. On the plus side, he is definitely consistent
- Despite the above, Trump is good at spotting 'storm clouds': he predicted the fall of the USSR a year before it happened, and was warning in 2000, a year before 9/11, that Osama bin Laden was a serious threat
- He routinely overestimates his abilities: the president who refused to receive daily security briefings because he is "like, smart", was claiming in 1984 that he could learn all about nuclear missiles in "an hour-and-a-half" and negotiate on the topic with the Soviets
- Trump was always susceptible to the "CNN effect", hence why we should not be surprised that Fox News has such a profound effect on him
- Trump lies, even to himself. I believe his concern for America is real, I believe his bombastic patriotism is truly heartfelt, but that doesn't stop him from seeking his own self-interest. A good example is his attitude regarding Cuba: he was paying good money for advance access to the Cuban market should the embargo be lifted while claiming publicly that lifting it would be a moral degradation for the United States
- Despite wanting to "make America great again", Trump is turning the USA from the power into a power by destroying the complex and fragile web of alliances successive administrations built
July 6, 2017
Must-read for all who want to know who Trump really is. The authors trace Trump's publicly expressed opinions from 1980 to 2014, stopping there because any comments Trump made from then on were potentially tainted by the necessities of political campaigning, pandering, etc. A consistent theme of Trump's public commentary up to his candidacy is the complaint that America was not receiving the "respect" it deserved from the rest of the world, and how this signified the folly and stupidity of American political leaders. But the section of the book from 2015 to the present contains interesting and thoughtful speculative analysis of what Trump's foreign policy positions mean for the world. Pity the book was evidently rushed to print, as there are a tad too many typos for my liking. But still great!
April 22, 2025
Although it looks outdated nowadays, since it was written in 2017, this book is still very important in understanding Trump's policy and ideology. It looks more important today than 8 years before, since now Trump is most determined to impose his tax-tarif and anti- immigration policy. The book explains that this policy is not opportunistic and Trump is not a mere populist leader. On the contrary, his views were already formed during the eighties and were also declared in many interviews and also in his book which was published few years before his first election. I will finish this short review with a few excepts from the book:
Donald Trump was a child of the 1950’s and, just as his domestic agenda is a nod to that era’s vision of the American Dream, his worldview reflects the mentality that Brogan identified. For Trump, almost every international problem that besets the United States is explained by the idiocy of its leaders...
In his 1987 open letter to the American people, when Trump bullishly inserted himself into national politics for the first time, Trump declared that “the world is laughing at America’s politicians.” The same day that letter appeared, he told Larry King in a CNN interview that other countries “laugh at us behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our stupidity and [that of our] leaders.”He has been repeating that refrain ever since.
...what is clear is that when Donald Trump entered the White House, he did so with a worldview that has been constantly advanced and relatively consistently articulated in countless statements over the past three decades. Don’t say he didn’t warn you.
Donald Trump was a child of the 1950’s and, just as his domestic agenda is a nod to that era’s vision of the American Dream, his worldview reflects the mentality that Brogan identified. For Trump, almost every international problem that besets the United States is explained by the idiocy of its leaders...
In his 1987 open letter to the American people, when Trump bullishly inserted himself into national politics for the first time, Trump declared that “the world is laughing at America’s politicians.” The same day that letter appeared, he told Larry King in a CNN interview that other countries “laugh at us behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our stupidity and [that of our] leaders.”He has been repeating that refrain ever since.
...what is clear is that when Donald Trump entered the White House, he did so with a worldview that has been constantly advanced and relatively consistently articulated in countless statements over the past three decades. Don’t say he didn’t warn you.
August 15, 2021
All things considered, a mixed bag. While I greatly appreciated and commend the generally non-biased, non-deranged, non-"Trump is the next Hitler!" approach this book took, it's still hard to come away from the book feeling like Trump was really that clever or smart a guy. He sounds more like a broken record, railing off his favourite catchphrases and anecdotes to whoever will listen in a way that kind of reminded me of my father-in-law (no disrespect to the latter, of course; my wife's father is a great man). This is not really the book's fault, but Trump's own. And it must be said that since the deeply disappointing (and, I still think, kind of dubious) election of Joe Biden last year, my already measured liking for Trump has diminished to more of a realistic, reluctant admission that he wasn't as great as I thought he was on his best days. I just liked him because he sent the lefties, who I was tired of seeing get their way, into hysterics and embarrassing conspiracy theories for four years.
Anyway, the book is good for its lack of an anti-Trump agenda. However, it does not make for a wholly satisfying read, as much of the ground it covers is very repetitive, shallow and kind of dumb - even if you don't entirely disagree with all Trump's impassioned rants.
Anyway, the book is good for its lack of an anti-Trump agenda. However, it does not make for a wholly satisfying read, as much of the ground it covers is very repetitive, shallow and kind of dumb - even if you don't entirely disagree with all Trump's impassioned rants.
May 10, 2020
Sehr neutrale und unparteiische schreibweise, wodurch man sich eine eigene meinung bilden kann. Allerdings fand ich, dass seine sozialen Ansichten viel zu wenig bis gar nicht beleuchtet wurden.
February 1, 2018
Das Buch ist verständlich geschrieben und liest sich sehr angenehm und flott. Es zeigt mit mehreren Zitaten durch Jahrzehnte hindurch Trumps Anschauungen auf und ergründet die möglichen Auslöser für diese. Aus diesen Zitaten zieht das Buch Rückschlüsse und wagt Ausblicke in mögliche Zukünfte. Hervorragen ist die, wie man es von wissenschaftlichen Büchern kennt, ausführliche Literaturangabe.
Ich hatte es in in drei Tagen durchgelesen und Mir sind nun einige Ansichten Trumps klarer, hinsichtlich der Herkunft (Goldene Fünfziger, 80iger), der Gründe (Bad Deal) und der Beliebigkeit des Gegners beziehungsweise der Auswechselbarkeit. Das Buch ist günstig, lehrreich und schnell gelesen. 3 von 5 Sternen.
Aus dem Buch nehme Ich hauptsächlich mit, dass einmal gemachte Erfahrungen Überzeugungen generieren, die schwer wieder abgelegt werden können. Je früher man die Erfahrungen macht und damit je länger man sie mit sich trägt umso mehr werden sie zu unveränderlichen Axiomen. Der Blick wird eingeschränkt und man hält sich im Recht. Ganz deutlich wird das daran, dass Trump den militärischen Schutz seiner Verbündeter und der Welt rein finanziell betrachtet ohne die weniger messbaren Ergebnisse zu berücksichtigen.
Ich hatte es in in drei Tagen durchgelesen und Mir sind nun einige Ansichten Trumps klarer, hinsichtlich der Herkunft (Goldene Fünfziger, 80iger), der Gründe (Bad Deal) und der Beliebigkeit des Gegners beziehungsweise der Auswechselbarkeit. Das Buch ist günstig, lehrreich und schnell gelesen. 3 von 5 Sternen.
Aus dem Buch nehme Ich hauptsächlich mit, dass einmal gemachte Erfahrungen Überzeugungen generieren, die schwer wieder abgelegt werden können. Je früher man die Erfahrungen macht und damit je länger man sie mit sich trägt umso mehr werden sie zu unveränderlichen Axiomen. Der Blick wird eingeschränkt und man hält sich im Recht. Ganz deutlich wird das daran, dass Trump den militärischen Schutz seiner Verbündeter und der Welt rein finanziell betrachtet ohne die weniger messbaren Ergebnisse zu berücksichtigen.
April 7, 2017
I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.
Although I found this interesting it was also very repetitive.
Hence only 3 stars.
Although I found this interesting it was also very repetitive.
Hence only 3 stars.
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September 10, 2017Great insight how Trump developed his "world view" and branded himself during the years 1989-2011
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews