Jeffrey W. Hornung is a senior political scientist and the Japan lead of the national security research division at RAND. He is also an adjunct professor at rgetown University.
While U.S. President Donald Trump’s messaging for Europe has been almost consistently negative, the same cannot be said for Japan. Since returning to office, his administration has been nothing but positive (apart from on tariffs) on the U.S.-Japan alliance. As encouraging as this situation may seem, past precedent should not be taken as a prediction of the future, particularly given how rapidly U.S. policy keeps changing.
