Lee Choon-geun, International Political ScientistWhen Trump took office as the 45th President in 2017, he placed a bust of Winston Churchill in his office. However, Biden, who became master of the White House in 2021, removed Churchill's bust. In 2025, Trump, once again the master of the White House, brought Churchill's bust back to the Oval Office. Churchill is a great figure widely known as the 'guardian of Western liberal Christian civilization' as the Prime Minister of Britain during World War II.

   President Trump also hung a portrait of President Ronald Reagan on the wall of his Oval Office. President Reagan is one of the most popular presidents in the United States, who brought down the Soviet Union, ended the Cold War, and ushered in an era of American unipolarity.

   What Trump intends by placing busts and portraits of the two politicians, Churchill and Reagan, in his office is clear. Trump aims to become the guardian of Western civilization, and just as Reagan collapsed the Soviet Union during the First Cold War and made the United States a sole superpower, he is expressing his will to collapse the PRC in the Second Cold War and make the United States a sole superpower.

   International political scientist Nune Monterio stated in his book, "Theory of Unipolar Politics," that a great power like the United States can choose one of the following three foreign policy objectives.

   First, a superpower like the United States can withdraw from international politics. This is because no one can threaten the US, and the US is the only country on Earth that can meet its food and energy needs. In other words, the US can return to isolationism.

   Second, a superpower like the United States can maintain the status quo. The US can maintain its position with only a little intervention in international politics.

   Third, a superpower like the United States can take this opportunity to shape the world to its advantage. In other words, it can take various measures to strengthen the unipolar system. After the complete collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many experts predicted that the United States would adopt an isolationist policy. However, after the end of the Cold War, all US presidents had chosen the second option, that is, a policy of maintaining the status quo with a little intervention in international politics. President Trump also adopted a policy of maintaining the status quo during his 45th term. However, President Trump demanded that the various countries benefiting from intervention in international politics pay an appropriate amount of money.

   However, it is certain that President Trump's foreign policy, since his inauguration as the 47th president this January, is pursuing the third objective presented by Professor Monterio. The United States has set a goal to become a complete hegemon or a sole superpower. And it is achieving that goal at a very rapid pace. Although only eight months have passed since his second inauguration, Trump's foreign policy is significantly changing the direction of world history.

   On September 23, President Trump clearly stated that he was reversing the direction of history in his UN speech. Trump ruthlessly shattered concepts that people all over the world had accepted without question for decades. He vehemently criticized the UN as no longer a meaningful organization for international peace but rather an organization that causes international problems. Furthermore, Trump criticized climate change, which people around the world believe as a myth, and various measures to address climate change, calling them a fraud. He warned that countries importing Chinese-made solar or wind power facilities to generate electricity would fail, even though China manufactures solar and wind power facilities for sale worldwide but relies on nuclear power for its own energy. Trump stated that he would not forgive state sponsors of terrorism that develop weapons of mass destruction. The US had already bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June, halting its nuclear program. In his UN speech, Trump seriously warned North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia, which are developing chemical weapons. Trump argued that the concept of globalization should be completely rejected and that we should return to the era of nation-states.

   In this way, Trump is dismantling the common perceptions we believed to be correct. As Trump's radical language and actions are closer to the truth and a way to solve world problems, a growing segment of people are strongly supporting him. In reality, environmental policies are destroying the environment, and globalization has driven ordinary people around the world, except for a few extreme wealthy individuals, into poverty. Trump's efforts to change the world signify a return to conservatism, with the restoration of freedom and order, and the strengthening of nations. In reality, the United States led by Trump is becoming cleaner, the nation is becoming stronger, and the people are becoming wealthier. Just as Americans are already saying Trump is greater than Lincoln, it is clear that Trump will undoubtedly rise to the ranks of great statesmen like Churchill and Reagan in the future.

Lee Choon-geun, International Political Scientist