America First

The slogan has served organizations promoting American trade interests, immigrant assimilation, participation in World War I, and opposition to involvement in World War II.[1] Its history also includes use by the Ku Klux Klan in anti-immigrant and antisemitic campaigns during the 1920s.[1] These uses did not constitute a single organization: the America First Committee did not align itself with those earlier causes or regard itself as their inheritor.[1]

The America First Committee, active in 1940–41, opposed aid to nations at war because it feared that assistance would draw the United States into the conflict.[1] It combined that position with demands for strong national defenses, presenting nonintervention as a way to preserve American democracy rather than as pacifism.[1] Its nationwide organization attracted politicians, business leaders, publishers, students, and prominent cultural figures.[4] Although its membership encompassed varied political backgrounds, conservative opponents of President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed an important part of its constituency.[1]

In contemporary politics, Trump adopted “America First” during his 2016 presidential campaign.[2] He connected it to jobs, trade, energy, taxes, regulation, and immigration, while his administration later defined it as an approach that prioritized U.S. citizens, values, and concerns without abandoning international leadership.[2][5]

The phrase’s significance for Jewish history centers particularly on Lindbergh’s accusations against American Jews and the support the committee received from antisemitic organizations.[1] Its modern revival also prompted Jewish criticism of the slogan’s historical resonance, without establishing that contemporary policies were identical to the committee’s program.[2]

The phrase predated the committee and had been used for several causes; during the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan used it in anti-immigrant and antisemitic campaigns.[1] At a Klan parade in Alexandria, Louisiana, in January 1922, banners displayed both “America First” and “White Supremacy”; a parade in Binghamton, New York, displayed “America First | One God | One Country | One Flag.”[6] The phrase also appeared in Klan literature and speeches, including a 1923 declaration: “I stand for America first, last and always . . . I am opposed to any organization which tries to bring in foreign and alien ideals.”[6] During the same decade, the Klan threatened and attacked Jews as supposed threats to white America and the “Aryan race.”[7]

A different interpretation appeared in a 1924 poster published by the National Council for Prevention of War.[3] It urged putting America first “not merely in matters material, but in things of the spirit,” emphasizing “ideals, principles, character.”[3] The poster connected national leadership with accepting duties and helping a “sick and wounded world,” documenting an international-goodwill use of the slogan before the America First Committee existed.[3]

Opposition to American participation in overseas conflicts had a longer history than the committee, reaching back to the colonial era.[8] During the 1930s, the Great Depression and memories of World War I losses strengthened public and political resistance to foreign entanglements.[9] Suspicions that bankers and arms manufacturers had profited from the earlier war were reinforced by Senator Gerald P. Nye’s 1934 report and publications including Merchants of Death and War Is a Racket.[9] The resulting isolationist constituency included progressives and conservatives, business owners and peace activists.[9]

War’s outbreak in Europe in 1939 did not immediately eliminate the desire to avoid involvement.[9] Public opinion moved from complete neutrality toward limited assistance to the Allies without American entry into the conflict.[9] The committee emerged amid arguments over whether the United States should join Britain against Nazi Germany and dissatisfaction among some Americans with the country’s participation in World War I.[10]

Yale law students formed the America First Committee in June 1940, and it publicly announced its formation on September 4.[1] It established national headquarters in Chicago, with the Midwest providing a particularly strong base of isolationist sentiment.[1] R. Douglas Stuart Jr., one of the Yale founders, persuaded Sears, Roebuck chairman Robert E. Wood to join its board; Wood chaired the organization throughout its existence.[1] Lindbergh became its best-known member and spokesperson, while Senators Nye, Robert Taft, and Burton K. Wheeler frequently addressed its events without being members.[1]

The committee grew into a national organization of more than 450 chapters and approximately 850,000 members, about two-thirds of them in the Midwest; its membership was weakest in the South.[1] Other accounts estimated more than 800,000 members.[4] One account records $370,000 in contributions from 25,000 donors.[11] Its supporters included Lillian Gish, Frank Lloyd Wright, and figures from both major political parties.[4]

Edelman identifies Kingman Brewster, Potter Stewart, Gerald Ford, and Sargent Shriver among the young people attracted to the movement.[12] He characterizes many such participants as youthful idealists seeking to avoid another world war, and notes their later prominence as Yale president, Supreme Court justice, U.S. president, and Peace Corps founder, respectively.[12]

Herbert Hoover shared the desire to avoid the European conflict but declined an invitation to join the committee.[4] In a December 6, 1940, reply to Stuart, he explained that he wanted to remain free of other connections while organizing food relief for five European democracies, an effort intended to save “the lives of millions of innocent people from famine.”[4] His position illustrated that nonintervention could coexist with humanitarian engagement abroad. Noninterventionists could also support force when necessary to defend American interests.[4]

Antisemitism became a major issue in the committee’s public history.[1] Its official rules barred fascists, Nazis, Communists, German American Bund members, and pacifists, but those exclusions were not consistently enforced.[1] The Ku Klux Klan and pro-Nazi Silver Legion endorsed it, Father Charles E. Coughlin encouraged listeners to join, and a German American Bund newspaper urged its readers to participate.[1] Businessman Henry Ford, who had circulated antisemitic conspiracy theories, appeared briefly on its national committee before his name was removed; he did not provide financial or other support.[1]

Ford had published antisemitic conspiracy theories drawing on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and later reprinted much of that material in The International Jew, which was distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies.[7] Avery Brundage was also initially associated with the committee’s leadership before removal as it sought to distance itself from accusations of antisemitism.[10] As chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Brundage had prevented two Jewish members of the 1936 American Olympic team from competing in the 400-meter relay final in Berlin.[10]

At a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941, Lindbergh identified “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt Administration” as the principal groups pressing the United States toward war.[13] Although he acknowledged Nazi persecution of European Jews, he repeated antisemitic conspiracy claims about Jewish ownership and influence in motion pictures, newspapers, radio, and government.[1] The speech was widely condemned as antisemitic and damaged both his standing and support for the antiwar movement.[13]

The press strongly criticized the address, but approximately 85 percent of letters subsequently received at committee offices expressed approval.[1] Committee leaders denied accusations of antisemitism without publicly criticizing Lindbergh, and the episode damaged the organization’s reputation.[1] Religious leaders and politicians, including Thomas E. Dewey and Taft, condemned the speech; some committee members resigned and major contributors withdrew.[14] Committee leaders affirmed that the organization welcomed Americans of every race, color, or creed, while New York chapter head John T. Flynn called the speech “stupid.”[14]

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, convinced most Americans that the United States should enter the war on the Allied side.[9] The committee pledged support for Roosevelt, stopped circulating literature, and instructed its chapters to postpone rallies.[1] On December 11, its national committee met in Chicago, voted to dissolve, and urged Americans to face the war united.[1] Germany and Italy declared war on the United States that same day.[8] Most committee supporters subsequently set aside their earlier objections and supported the war effort.[4]

The committee’s founding principles called for an “impregnable defense for America,” preparation against foreign attack, avoidance of the European war, and withholding weapons or other aid from belligerent nations.[1] It argued that entering the conflict would endanger democracy at home and that assistance short of war would weaken American defenses while risking eventual involvement.[1][15] The committee denied being pacifist or supporting Nazi Germany; it later endorsed humanitarian aid to Britain while remaining neutral and proposed a public vote on entering the war.[1]

In an April 23, 1941, speech, Lindbergh called his position “not of isolation but of independence” and advocated armed forces capable of defending the Western Hemisphere.[15] The rally at New York City’s Manhattan Center demonstrated the movement’s public reach: approximately 8,000 people filled the auditorium hours before he spoke, while police estimated another 10,000–15,000 gathered outside.[16] The marquee also advertised appearances by writer Kathleen Norris and Senator Walsh.[16]

Organizationally, the committee maintained a research department and speakers’ bureau, held rallies, published materials, purchased newspaper advertisements, and sponsored radio broadcasts.[1] Flynn, a journalist and critic of New Deal programs, became a leading publicist, helping establish chapters, arrange events, and recruit members.[8] The Writer’s Anti-War Bureau produced a weekly sheet, Uncensored, for radio commentators, newspaper editors, and other publicists to counter what its editor considered pro-intervention propaganda and bias.[8]

Business supporters argued that war could undermine capitalism and free enterprise.[1] That backing also contributed to the committee’s failure to attract most labor unions and farm workers’ organizations.[1] Its most intense legislative campaign targeted the 1941 Lend-Lease Act, which it argued would effectively end neutrality and grant Roosevelt excessive foreign-policy authority.[1] Some speakers warned of dictatorial powers, but the legislation passed overwhelmingly in March 1941.[1] The committee failed to defeat Roosevelt’s legislative program, though one account says its pressure made him more cautious on extending draftees’ service and convoying British vessels.[11]

Trump’s use of “America First” extended beyond the committee-era question of entering a European war.[2] During the 2016 campaign, he described an agenda encompassing jobs, trade, energy, taxes, regulation, and immigration.[2] Asked in March 2016 about isolationism, he answered, “I’m not an isolationist, but I am ‘America First.’”[2] He subsequently used the slogan in his 2017 inaugural address, declaring, “From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.”[17]

The inaugural address tied decisions on trade, taxation, immigration, and foreign affairs to benefits for American workers and families.[17] It also promised friendship with other nations while recognizing their right to put their own interests first.[17] Associated domestic policies included trade barriers, keeping jobs and production in the United States, and limiting immigration.[2] Within MAGA politics, the agenda also involved support for traditional values and proposals or policies that discriminated against some nonwhite or non-Christian immigrants.[18]

A September 20, 2017, administration account of Trump’s United Nations General Assembly address presented the approach as “Principled Realism.”[5] The administration defined “America First” as prioritizing U.S. citizens, values, and concerns, while maintaining that it did not mean “America alone.”[5] Its stated position was that the United States would remain an international leader while encouraging other countries to contribute to shared efforts, including counterterrorism.[5]

The phrase remained an official policy label in 2025, when an account of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first 100 days organized an “America First” agenda into six pillars: foreign policy, economic and trade relationships, U.S. leadership, borders and immigration, combating adversaries, and lasting peace.[19] The administration’s stated Middle East accomplishments included helping establish and maintain a six-week Gaza ceasefire that resulted in the release of 38 hostages.[19] Its account also described engagement with Israel, the European Union, and Arab states over postwar Gaza governance and border management; these were administration claims about its own activities and accomplishments.[19]

A September 29, 1941, political cartoon, “Going down with colors flying,” depicted a figure labeled “America First” sinking in “Isolation Quick Sand.”[20] Its context included German submarine warfare, Japanese aggression, and continuing isolationist opposition to American participation in the war.[20] Other criticism could blur distinctions among opponents of intervention: an American Labor Party rally graphic depicted a snake bearing swastikas and the names “Wheeler, Lindbergh, and Hoover,” although Hoover had never joined the committee.[4] Gish was blacklisted in Hollywood because of her involvement.[4]

The wartime debate also intersected with broader antisemitic accusations that Jews were responsible for American involvement in foreign conflicts.[7] After the United States entered World War II, staunch isolationists continued blaming Jews for drawing the country into the war.[7] Lindbergh’s Des Moines speech therefore forms part of a wider history of treating Jewish Americans as suspect participants in national political debate.[1][7]

Edelman interprets “America First” as a recurring expression of American isolationism and protectionism, rooted in early political traditions and Republican Party history.[12] He places the 1930s movement against Roosevelt’s attempts to work around legal barriers to involvement in Europe and argues that Pearl Harbor damaged many America Firsters’ reputations and political careers.[12] In his account, Senator Arthur Vandenberg later recognized the untenability of his earlier isolationism, while Dwight Eisenhower’s nomination victory over Taft marked a Republican turn toward conservative internationalism.[12]

That interpretation also traces a continuing isolationist tendency through Senator John Bricker in the 1950s and, later, Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul.[12] Edelman regards Trump’s revival of the slogan as a renewal of that tendency, with echoes of positions associated with Taft and Lindbergh.[12] He identifies resistance to lower trade barriers, reluctance to provide additional aid to Ukraine, skepticism toward allies, and indifference or hostility toward democracy promotion as features of its contemporary expression.[12]

For Israel, Edelman argues that the important long-term question is whether skepticism toward alliances and treating them as economic transactions could weaken American support.[12] He also warns that antisemitism accompanying the political tendency could erode support for Israel over time; these are projections and political arguments, rather than established outcomes.[12] The administration’s 2025 account of engagement with Israel and regional partners, meanwhile, explicitly included Middle East diplomacy within its stated America First priorities.[19]

Disputes over the slogan concern how far its historical associations should determine the meaning of later uses.[2] During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he knew its history but had not chosen it for that reason, calling it “a brand-new, very modern term.”[6] The Anti-Defamation League urged him to abandon it because of its historical associations with isolationism and antisemitism.[2]

The committee’s relationship with extremism also requires distinctions between its stated rules, influential advocates, and rank-and-file members.[1] A 1941 investigation covering units in 12 cities alleged active support from antisemitic and pro-Hitler groups and influential participants with such associations, while acknowledging that ordinary members could be sincere Americans seeking peace.[21] That was a contemporaneous advocacy assessment, not a finding that every member shared extremist aims.[21] Edelman similarly argues that supporters of the antisemitic radio priest Coughlin supplied important impetus and notes an accusation by the Florida chapter’s leader that Jews were bringing the country toward war.[12]

Neither the committee’s formal rejection of Nazism nor its diverse membership erases Lindbergh’s antisemitic rhetoric; conversely, his speech does not describe every supporter’s beliefs.[1][13] Historical uses by the Klan, the 1924 peace poster, the committee, and contemporary politicians represent distinct contexts rather than proof of one unchanging political program.[1][3]