I thank you for your comment. Yes you are right and it was not my intention to say that Trump was the inevitable response, but rather a response. Even Obama was a ‘response’ to what America’s place in the world should look like. I suppose the argument is that this deep-seated uncertainty in America about its place in the world predates the election and all candidates, during the primaries and beyond, to which all candidates had to respond. Bernie Sanders also campaigned on a somewhat protectionist agenda, as did Clinton (distancing herself from TPP). I remember reading Kagan’s ‘Superpowers don’t get to retire’ back in 2014 and his argument is quite prescient.