ASPEN, COLORADO | July 19, 2025 — Six months into Donald Trump’s second term, Western experts are increasingly convinced that the former president has already reshaped the global order in ways that may be irreversible. That’s the assessment emerging from this year’s Aspen Security Forum, as reported by Politico.
In a wide-ranging analysis based on interviews with former U.S. officials and national security experts, Politico notes that “elites in the national security sphere now concede that this president has fundamentally altered the postwar global system.” From trade alliances to long-term security commitments, many see Trump’s “America First” doctrine not as a rhetorical flourish but as the new baseline of U.S. foreign policy.
One of the most striking comments came from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told the forum that the United States is “unlikely to return to the old system,” acknowledging what Politico described as the “surprising effectiveness” of Trump’s second administration.
During Trump’s first term (2017–2021), many in Washington’s foreign policy establishment believed they could temper his instincts and expected that future administrations would easily reverse course. That assumption no longer holds.
Now, according to Politico, even seasoned strategists are struggling to identify ways to influence a White House that appears increasingly resistant to traditional input. As global leaders and policy professionals gather at Aspen, many are confronting the reality that the Trump doctrine — transactional, nationalist, and unilateral — may have permanently reshaped U.S. engagement with the world.
“We’re not just adapting to Trump. We’re adapting to a new global reality he’s creating,” said one former U.S. diplomat on the sidelines of the forum.
As Trump continues to assert his vision of American primacy, analysts suggest that the international community may be entering an era defined less by consensus and more by realpolitik — where long-held alliances face new tests, and global cooperation is increasingly conditional.
