National security elites accept Trump is creating a new world order
The U.S. president has revamped trade, aid and military force to an extent that attendees here say will have effects for decades to come.
“We have to recognize that we're probably not going back to exactly that system,” former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the closing panel of the summit. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
By Eric Bazail-Eimil
07/19/2025 07:00 AM EDT
ASPEN, Colorado — Six months into President Donald Trump’s second administration, national security elites at the annual Aspen Security Forum have accepted that this president has irrevocably upended the global order.
Against the backdrop of the leafy Aspen Meadows Resort, former and current U.S. and foreign officials, business leaders and analysts acknowledged publicly and privately that the Trump administration has dealt a lasting blow to much of the post-World War II consensus around free trade and long-term cooperation.
“We have to recognize that we’re probably not going back to exactly that system,” former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the closing panel of the summit. Rice is a co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group, which puts on the annual Rocky Mountains national security confab.
Her words reflect the striking efficacy of the second Trump administration, which in its first six months has taken a sledgehammer to the norms and conventions that governed U.S. trade relations, use of military force and engagement with stalwart partners and alliances. It has also overseen the elimination of agencies that handle foreign policy tasks — most notably the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development — and slashed staff within the intelligence community, the Pentagon and the State Department.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/19/aspen-forum-attendees-admit-theres-no-return-to-a-pre-trump-world-order-00464338
