A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump has reversed a lot of traditional foreign policy positions. To hear how those moves are playing beyond the Beltway, NPR's Frank Langfitt took a trip to St. Petersburg, Florida, and asked around.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: I was in St. Pete for an annual conference on world affairs. So there are dozens of these local groups around the country for people interested in what's happening overseas. So I set my microphone up on a table and invited anyone to chat.
ALFREDO ANTHONY: I'm Alfredo Anthony. I am actually a retired lieutenant colonel from the United States Army.
LANGFITT: Tell me what your thoughts are so far about the foreign policy as it's emerging.
ANTHONY: Right now, it appears as if the foreign policy is one of more of a bully. You're going to do things my way and my way only. Oh, we're going to take over Gaza. Jordan and Lebanon, you're going to have to take all of the displaced Palestinians. That is not the way, as far as I'm concerned, to truly develop consensus.
LANGFITT: Anthony says Trump's approach has limitations. When Anthony arrived here as a kid from the Dominican Republic, he was meek and small.
ANTHONY: But I had a temper. And there were two bullies that continued to bully me until I got sick and tired of them, and I just laid them out. So I believe that when you have nations, even if they're smaller, everyone has a breaking point.
LANGFITT: President Trump likes to use hard power, such as the threat of military action. But historically, the United States has also used soft power, like foreign aid. One of the conference's attendees, Iqbal Paroo told me that the U.S. Agency for International Development changed his life.
IQBAL PAROO: At the age of 17, I was a pilot cadet in the Kenya Air Force. And then, one weekend, I had an accident and that resulted in the amputation of my left leg above the knee.
LANGFITT: He visited the USAID office in Nairobi and landed a scholarship to study in America. It paid off.
PAROO: I'm a health care executive, who has had a 50-year career in running hospitals, academic centers and philanthropy - global philanthropy.
LANGFITT: Since taking office in January, President Trump has gutted USAID. Paroo, who was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Board of a U.S. development organization, thinks that's a big mistake.
PAROO: I got educated because of America, and that is the goodwill that we cannot earn by dropping bombs. We earn that by helping people get education and clean water, access to health.
LANGFITT: World affairs conferences tend to attract more liberal internationalists like Paroo and Anthony. So I reached out to other people in town and got a pretty different perspective.
PETE BOLAND: My name is Pete Boland, and I own a couple of bars and restaurants here in downtown St. Pete.
LANGFITT: Boland says when it comes to alliances, he agrees with Trump that the U.S. often gets the short end of the stick.
BOLAND: We've picked up the tabs for so many different things. You know, whether it be this huge trade deficit or subsidizing NATO. In a small business, you can't just go spend money frivolously.
LANGFITT: The U.S. doesn't subsidize NATO, but it spends more on defense than the rest of the alliance combined. Boland says he's also skeptical about USAID spending.
BOLAND: It's hard to tell what's true, but when you hear things like making a "Sesame Street" in Iraq, that's the stuff that just really kind of raises your eyebrow.
LANGFITT: USAID has funded local versions of "Sesame Street" for years to help teach tolerance, literacy and empathy, particularly to kids who've suffered through war and displacement.
MARK HIGGINS: Hey, Frank. This is Mark.
LANGFITT: Hey, Mark. This is good. This sounds very clear.
Mark Higgins is a retired financial adviser here in St. Pete. He says in 2022, he was puzzled as to why people were posting Ukrainian flags on social media, something he said he would never do.
HIGGINS: Because I have no dog in the fight. Stand with Ukraine. I don't know what that means. To what extent? To what point?
LANGFITT: And Higgins thinks the fighting in Ukraine has gone on far too long.
HIGGINS: Wars are very costly. And I'm all for the president of the United States trying to negotiate a settlement.
LANGFITT: But when it comes to Russia, Higgins has a more critical take than the president.
HIGGINS: I think they're enemy of the United States, and I wouldn't trust them. I think they're like thugs.
LANGFITT: President Trump is breaking with many traditional American foreign policy positions, and even some of his supporters don't agree with all of his views.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, St. Petersburg. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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