It isn’t always easy to keep up with what’s happening in the US. 'Shorter America' is Dr Emma Shortis' weekly column looping you in on what’s going on in America with news and analysis that you can trust.
Fri 12 Dec 2025 01.00
Photo: Official White House Photo/Molly Riley
I’m back from a little break and, rudely, the news kept coming while I was away. The Trump Administration released a new National Security Strategy, which is just as bad as you’d expect. Worse, even. And Trump keeps being Trump.
This week:
Trump’s new National Security Strategy reads just like something out of Project 2025. If you’re game enough to read it, you’ll note the barely-coded white supremacist rhetoric and probably be able to guess which Trump-appointed advisors have had their clammy hands (I assume) all over it.
The NSS is a mess – it’s full of internal contradictions and sloppy thinking. Like Trump and the movement that supports him, it is deeply worrying and yet also completely absurd. Robert L. Borosage’s excellent take in The Nation outlines those contradictions – and the seriousness of what we are dealing with – and puts them in historical context.
In terms of implications for the rest of the world, Van Jackson’s analysis identifies the white supremacy for what it is and – unlike so much of the talk here in Australia – doesn’t shy away from it. If you’reinto progressive analysis of foreign policy, Van’s substack and podcast are great resources.
On Australia and AUKUS – which doesn’t rate a mention in the NSS – Wanning Sun wrote great piece outlining what it means for us (and I don’t just think that because she said I was right).
Speaking of white supremacy…in Pennsylvania, Trump held an event which was billed as all about ‘affordability’ in which he (shock!) said disgustingly racist things. Much of the coverage – like this one in The Guardian – seemed to understand this racism as a distraction from affordability, as if Trump had, as usual, veered off course.
I don’t think that’s what happened. Trump didn’t veer off message. He was rallying the base, confirming deeply racist assumptions that white Americans’ economic insecurity isn’t because of rich white guys’ obscene hoarding greed, it’s because of immigrants. That’s been his message all along.
Trump’s approval ratings on economic management may well be tanking, but that doesn’t mean the political consequences are straightforward. Trump is a master at redirecting blame and that’s what he was doing in Pennsylvania.
When is a war a war? As the Trump Administration escalates its assault on Venezuela, I’ve gone back to one of my favourite podcasts of the first Trump era. Roman Mars’ Con Law – now rebranded as “What Trump can teach us about Con Law” is always excellent. In the latest episode, Mars and the star of the show, Professor Elizabeth Joh, ask “What is a War?”.
Marco Rubio’s State Department, meanwhile, is busy with some desperately important issues. Like making sure the fonts they use aren’t too woke.
And finally, just a reminder that if you do want or need to go to the United States (which, to give some unsolicited professional advice, avoid if possible), maybe don’t post about it.
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