{"id":18449,"date":"2026-07-27T03:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18449"},"modified":"2026-07-27T03:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:54:28","slug":"some-democrats-tout-their-version-of-america-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18449","title":{"rendered":"Some Democrats tout their version of &quot;America First&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/PzzQgNQt8sRt1RJaLSHCOVdDp9Q=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/24\/1784901684366.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A small but growing number of Democrats are embracing their own version of &#8220;America First&#8221; in response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a>&#8216;s ongoing war with Iran in partnership with Israel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Trump&#8217;s war is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/10\/17\/trump-foreign-policy-focus-marjorie-taylor-greene\" target=\"_blank\">scrambling the politics<\/a> of a slogan he once owned, fracturing the right even as some Democrats \u2014 including potential 2028 presidential candidates \u2014 embrace it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Senate candidate in Michigan who campaigned with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/24\/aoc-takes-more-steps-toward-2028-run-for-president\" target=\"_blank\">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-N.Y.) last weekend, told Axios: &#8220;I&#8217;m the most America First candidate in the country, proudly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;When you keep our money here rather than sending it to some other country&#8217;s war machine, that&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/10\/17\/trump-foreign-policy-focus-marjorie-taylor-greene\" target=\"_blank\">America First<\/a>,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>California <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/17\/khanna-and-aoc-battle-is-old-bernie-vs-new-bernie\" target=\"_blank\">Rep. Ro Khanna<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/17\/khanna-and-aoc-battle-is-old-bernie-vs-new-bernie\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>, who&#8217;s weighing a run for the White House, also is embracing the label.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In April, he <a href=\"https:\/\/khanna.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/rep-ro-khanna-reintroduces-gasoline-export-ban-act-prohibiting-exportation\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> it&#8217;s time to &#8220;put America first&#8221; when he reintroduced a bill to ban gas exports during periods of high gas prices.<\/li>\n<li>In February on the House floor, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepRoKhanna\/status\/2026745465673273433?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">Khanna said<\/a> that &#8220;another war in the Middle East is not America First.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>And Dan Osborn, a union leader <\/strong>running for Senate in Nebraska as an independent against the Republican incumbent, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/osbornforne\/status\/2080775463086236050?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on Friday<\/a>: &#8220;We need to be putting America first, not Israel first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We can&#8217;t undermine the independence of the American military for any ally,&#8221; he added, &#8220;much less an untrustworthy one that&#8217;s already forced us to throw money at a useless forever war overseas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Some Republicans agree with Democrats that Trump&#8217;s war with Iran was a betrayal of his pledge to put Americans first <strong>\u2014 <\/strong>and that it&#8217;s given Democrats a political opening.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tucker Carlson, who introduced Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2024, lobbied the president against attacking Iran and has since apologized for &#8220;misleading people&#8221; about Trump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>El-Sayed agreed with Trump&#8217;s critics<\/strong> on the right, saying that &#8220;the MAGA version of America First is to make a show out of America First, only to sell you out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;They&#8217;ll always be beholden to the interests of a foreign interest lobby like AIPAC, and always be beholden to the interests of the corporate war machine, the military-industrial complex, the folks who win every single time we send our weapons abroad,&#8221; he added.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Most national Democrats still stop short of using Trump&#8217;s phrase, but they increasingly echo its main arguments.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Campaigning in Memphis this month, Ocasio-Cortez <strong>\u2014 <\/strong>who&#8217;s considering a run for president or the Senate in 2028 \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Da61AzURPhz\/\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that &#8220;all that money we&#8217;re spending on bombs abroad could be spent on schools right here.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In a speech to Arkansas&#8217; Democratic Party in April, <a href=\"https:\/\/arkansasadvocate.com\/2026\/04\/25\/in-first-keynote-since-24-loss-kamala-harris-calls-for-revival-of-the-american-dream\/\" target=\"_blank\">former Vice President Kamala Harris said<\/a>, &#8220;To spark an American revival, we must start with a bold agenda where our public dollars go to affordable housing and healthcare and childcare, not spent on reckless foreign wars that no one wants.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Trump himself repeatedly decried &#8220;stupid foreign wars&#8221; during the 2024 campaign.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Beyond antiwar statements, <\/strong>many Democrats have embraced domestic industrial policies aimed at reviving American manufacturing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In June, Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Cory Booker of New Jersey \u2014 both potential presidential contenders<strong> \u2014<\/strong> were among those introducing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kelly.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/kelly-schumer-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-rebuild-american-manufacturing-lower-costs-and-create-good-paying-jobs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Make More in America Act<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Kelly argued the bill would &#8220;build more things here at home and create good-paying jobs while reducing our dependency on foreign adversaries.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Bottom line: <\/strong>Trump will finish his term in 2029, but the politics that led him to embrace &#8220;America First&#8221; now appear bipartisan, and here to stay.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Polls indicate voters are tired of the decades of battles in the Middle East, particularly when they don&#8217;t feel positive about their economic situation at home. <\/li>\n<li>Now politicians in both parties are trying to meet voters where they already are.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A small but growing number of Democrats are embracing their own version of &#8220;America First&#8221; in response to Donald Trump&#8216;s ongoing war with Iran in partnership with Israel. Why it matters: Trump&#8217;s war is scrambling the politics of a slogan he once owned, fracturing the right even as some Democrats \u2014 including potential 2028 presidential&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/PzzQgNQt8sRt1RJaLSHCOVdDp9Q=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/24\/1784901684366.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}