The key to understanding Donald Trump's foreign policy is where it focuses. If he's dealing with the Western Hemisphere, he's extremely interventionist. If he's dealing with anyone outside that, he's balancing American interests against what's best for that area or country. He calls it America First. The classic name is the Monroe Doctrine. 

Almost every President since Monroe has espoused some version of the Monroe Doctrine. Classically, it meant that the old world stayed where it was, and America would stay in the new world. It was a basic bifurcation borne out of necessity. When founded, the United States did not have the economic or military power to project strength abroad. 

As the United States of America has grown, so has our conception of what it means to project strength in our sphere of the world. In the 19th Century, it meant purchasing land, defeating Mexico in wars, and pushing the colonial powers out of North and Central America. 

In the 20th Century, we were forced to deal with two world wars and then the Cold War. The combination of these events catapulted America from the back of the room to the leading light of the free world. While some presidents had sought to push beyond our realm in the past, they lacked the power to do so. 

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union left no doubt: the United States of America was the undisputed strongman in the world. No other country or collection of nations can rival what the United States is on an economic or military level. Even the recent rise of China has caveats: America's military is tested and ready, while China hasn't fought a major conflict in a generation. 

The problem we're dealing with now is what the world should look like. The Cold War answer was simple: America should project strength everywhere to push back against the communist threat. To a lesser extent, we're seeing a similar thing now with China. 

Donald Trump's move to kick China out of the Panama Canal reestablishes American superiority in the Western Hemisphere while removing a rival. How far does that go, though? 

Donald Trump is working on a deal to acquire Ukraine's rare earth minerals for American use. This would be a means of repaying the money and resources we've sunk into the war in Ukraine. Those same rare earth minerals can help the United States combat China's monopolistic stranglehold over the rare earth mineral industry. 

But Ukraine isn't alone. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a war with Rwanda. The DRC's leadership wants the United States or Europe to cut a rare earth deal there, too, to help push back foreign military groups. China has access to many of those same rare earth minerals. 

If the United States is applying Cold War logic to its current foreign policy, then we should cut all the deals and push the Chinese back wherever possible. But if we have an altered view of our role in the world, then more caution is warranted.

If Trump believes in some form of Neo-Monroe doctrine, he could be splitting the world up. The United States continues to hold the Western hemisphere, surrounded by two oceans, with a focus on taming the migration flows from Central and South America. But Trump could force Europe and Russia to step up and handle their battles while pushing Australia, Japan, and South Korea to do the same in Asia with China. 

Instead of a world split between the United States and the USSR, it's a world split in three, with the United States, China, and Russia as the major players. Europe has itself to blame for not being a major power in this instance. 

It's a new world, but an inevitable debate because we've never settled on what we want the post-Cold War era to look like. America was thrust into the leadership spotlight with the collapse of the Soviet Union and left alone at the top of the world. As other nations attempt to grab pieces of that missing power, we're left asking what we want the world to look like as Americans. 

Trump's answer seems to be to split it up and let Americans handle our area of the world while Europeans and Asian countries handle their spheres. We're not without interests in both areas, but we're not looking at America as the lone superpower responsible for what's happening in the world. 

It's not an exaggeration to say that Americans are somewhat exhausted after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and have little to show for them. They look at Ukraine and ask how long we will stay involved there. Europe wants to freeload and enjoy its socialist healthcare and culture while America foots the defense bill for everyone. 

That's not going to work anymore. America refuses to walk alone, and every President this Century has hammered Europe to pay more. The Europeans would prefer their bureaucracies and elite culture while doing little to actually defend it. Germany is the poster child here, eliminating all its nuclear plants in favor of relying on Russian oil.

Trump personifies America's frustration with an ungrateful world. We're footing the defense bill of democracy and not getting the gratitude or payback in the process. Retreating has its downsides, too. From a pure security standpoint, I'd prefer America call all the shots because we're far more trustworthy than any other nation.

The status quo can't hold, though. Trump is trying to answer the question of what the post-Cold War world should look like. No one has been able to figure that out yet, but Trump is trying.