Trump's War-Making Breaks from Corporate-Controlled Foreign Policy Establishment, Making It More Dangerous
Source: Paul Heideman. "The GOP Is at War — Without the Foreign Policy Establishment." March 6, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
For 100 years, big corporations controlled American foreign policy through think tanks, which led to terrible wars but at least involved competent planning. Trump has broken from this system and now makes war decisions with inexperienced people, making American wars even more dangerous and chaotic.
Conclusion
Trump's break from the traditional foreign policy establishment, which was controlled by corporate elites, has made American war-making more dangerous and incompetent rather than better
Premises
- For a century, American foreign policy was controlled by a network of think tanks funded and overseen by major corporate leaders
- This corporate-controlled establishment, while producing horrors like Vietnam and Iraq, provided systematic planning and oversight for foreign policy
- Trump's administration has dramatically fewer connections to this establishment (39 links vs 131-133 in previous administrations)
- Trump's current war planning shows signs of incompetence: shifting war aims, no evacuation plans, insufficient armaments
- Trump's foreign policy team now consists of figures with no policy background (Fox News hosts, real estate developers) rather than think tank veterans
- The GOP has become 'unmoored from the control of America's capitalist class as a whole' while still serving narrow sectoral interests
- This structural break from establishment oversight explains the particular form of Trump's current bellicosity
Assumptions
- Corporate oversight of foreign policy, while producing bad outcomes, provided some level of competent planning
- Institutional experience and think tank backgrounds contribute to more systematic policy-making
- The current Iran conflict demonstrates the consequences of this institutional break
- Class-wide capitalist oversight is different from and more stabilizing than narrow sectoral control