EXCLUSIVE: ‘AMERICA FIRST’—State Department Takes a Step Away From Nation Building

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department will pivot away from meddling in foreign elections in accordance with President Donald Trump’s emphasis on national sovereignty, The Daily Signal has learned.

State Department employees will no longer be allowed to publicly comment on foreign elections unless “there is a clear and compelling U.S. foreign policy interest to do so,” according to a memo issued Wednesday morning.

“This guidance provides common-sense clarity to the entire Department that elections-related communications should reflect President Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy agenda,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“When it is appropriate to comment on a foreign election, our message should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests,” the memo obtained by The Daily Signal reads. “Messages should avoid opining on the fairness or integrity of an electoral process, its legitimacy, or the democratic values of the country in question.”

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 13, Trump praised progress from “sovereign countries, pursuing [their] own unique visions, and charting [their] own unique destinies in [their] own way.” 

“In the end, the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump said. “And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand.”

The messaging recalibration moves away from intervention in foreign elections, toward allowing sovereign nations to discern their own governance.

“While the United States will hold firm to its own democratic values and celebrate those values when other countries choose a similar path,” the memo says, “the president made clear that the United States will pursue partnerships with countries wherever our strategic interests align.”

Generally, only the secretary of state or his spokesperson will be authorized to make election-related statements. Other employees must gain approval before posting.

“If a bureau or an overseas post wishes to issue statements denouncing the process or outcome of an election (e.g., violence during voting or sham elections), the relevant regional bureau’s front office should first seek guidance … as described in [paragraph] 4,” the memo says. “Such messages will be rare.”

All employees making a foreign policy post are encouraged to use messaging to advance a U.S. foreign policy goal, not to promote an ideology.

Messages can congratulate a president-elect, but they should not comment on the process.

Posters should consider “Would the president say it?” before drafting an election-related comment, according to the memo.

Employees are prohibited from using euphemisms to bypass this guidance.