“The ‘America First’ agenda does not mean America alone”—Policy Analyst Kristen Ziccarelli

Originally published on The European Conservative 

Kristen Ziccarelli is a Senior Policy Analyst, specializing in Homeland Security, Immigration & Western Hemisphere at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).

What is AFPI?

At the end of the first Trump administration, in 2021, a few top leaders of the ‘America First’ movement—Brooke Rollins, Larry Kudlow, and Linda McMahon (all of them with government experience and former advisors to President Trump)—gathered and formed AFPI, a think tank to defend the movement’s principles. For the past four years, AFPI has pushed ‘America First’ by holding events and campaigns across the country, and advocating for every item on the ‘America First’ agenda: secure borders, a strong economy, energy independence, Christian values, etc. These are ideas that are shared by the majority of Americans and are the complete opposite of what the Biden administration did for four years. AFPI is a nonpartisan think tank, existing to promote the policies of the ‘America First’ agenda (we do not speak for the Trump Administration).

Many Europeans are aware that the West is threatened: by the woke policies implemented by their governments, by war, mass immigration, etc. Is the average American aware of this threat?

I believe the average American is to some extent aware of this threat, although they are very clear that they do not want extremist policies such as gender ideology or the anti-Americanism that has been promoted until recently by our government. For that reason, Trump’s first measures were aimed at ending that madness. The average American wants his government to protect him, defend his borders and preserve Western values.

And with respect to international policy, does looking inward imply an isolationist policy?

No, the ‘America First’ agenda does not mean America alone. The reality is that when President Trump pushes some countries to invest more in defense, what he wants is for those countries to be able to defend themselves and not have to rely exclusively on the United States; the whole West has to be able to defend itself, it’s a logical thing to do. The Trump Administration is focused on having a strong West and is aware of the threat posed by China, Russia, and Iran, but the truth is that the United States has serious problems to solve, which have been dragging on for decades, and we cannot allow them to continue.

Your work at AFPI is related to immigration.

Yes, since 2022. The Biden administration overturned everything Trump did to secure the border and provoked an unprecedented immigration crisis that had terrible consequences in U.S. communities, with an increase in crime and also in costs to deal with the crisis. The massive influx of illegal aliens was a determining factor in the vote in the last election, because most Americans want to protect the border and not see fellow Americans become victims of crimes committed by criminal illegal aliens.

Another consequence of Biden’s open borders policy was the fentanyl crisis, although many did not understand it at first, because with the open border also came a lot of drugs smuggled by the Mexican cartels. Fentanyl, whose precursors originate in China, was one of those drugs, and its effects have been devastating.

To read the full article, click here.