Photo taken on December 2, 2025 shows the White House, in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

The White House released US President Donald Trump's National Security Strategy (NSS) report for his second term Thursday evening local time, described by US media Politico as "a rare formal explanation" of Trump administration's foreign policy worldview. The 33-page document focuses on the Western Hemisphere, citing the Monroe Doctrine while using "some brutal words for Europe, suggesting it is in civilizational decline, and pays relatively little attention to the Middle East and Africa," Politico said in a report published on Friday.

Reuters said US presidents typically release such strategic documents in the first year of each term to guide budget allocation and policy priorities across government agencies. Trump issued his first-term strategy in December 2017, while former president Joe Biden released his in October 2022. 

According to Politico, Trump intends for the US to maintain a larger military presence in the Western Hemisphere to counter migration, drug trafficking, and the rise of rival powers in the region, as outlined in his new NSS. The document places an unusually heavy emphasis on the Western Hemisphere and frames this focus primarily as protecting the US homeland. 

According to AFP, the national security strategy, meant to flesh out Trump's norms-shattering worldview, elevates Latin America to the top of the US agenda in a sharp reorientation from longstanding US calls to focus on Asia to face a rising China.

However, in the Asia section of the 2025 NSS, Taiwan is still mentioned multiple times. Reuters noted that the updated NSS mentions "Taiwan" eight times across three paragraphs, with wording stronger than that of Trump's first-term strategy, but unlike the Biden administration, it largely avoids indicating how it would respond to potential future conflicts.

Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, told the Global Times that the wording on Taiwan in this US NSS is more explicit, more militarized, and more geopolitical than the 2017 and 2022 versions. This strategy makes clear that, for the US, Taiwan's importance lies in "its dominant position in semiconductor production" and in the fact that "Taiwan provides a direct gateway to the second island chain," revealing Washington's real logic in treating Taiwan as a pawn.

Zhang Jiadong, a professor at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University, told the Global Times that for decades, playing the "Taiwan card" has been a basic approach in US policy toward China. Now, Washington fears losing this card, because the situation across the Taiwan Straits is gradually moving in a direction that serves the shared interests of people on both sides. The wording in the US NSS signals an intent to "block" this trend precisely because the US worries it can no longer play the card as freely as it once did.

Zhang added that "the references to Taiwan in the new US NSS actually reflect a shift in the balance of power across the Taiwan Straits." The US is merely signaling its so-called concerns, he said, while the strategy will not fundamentally change cross-Strait relations, nor will it alter the basic dynamics in the region.

Commenting on Washington's stance toward Taiwan, Zhu said the NSS makes it clear that the US officially views Taiwan as a chip factory and a strategic conduit, exposing the myth of a "values-based alliance" promoted by the DPP authorities. Increasingly, people on the island see more clearly whether the US is "protecting Taiwan" or "harming Taiwan," and whether the DPP authorities are "safeguarding Taiwan" or "bringing trouble to Taiwan."

Although the latest NSS made comments on China-related issues, CNN and some other US media outlets said that the core of the new US strategy is a call for a "readjustment" of America's military presence in the Western Hemisphere and a critique of Europe. 

CNN also noted that the document formalizes earlier criticisms of Europe. In February, US Vice President JD Vance told European leaders in Munich, Germany, that the biggest security threat was "from within," rather than from China or Russia, CNN reported.