President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) is creating tremors across Europe and stirring concern in Asia. It is markedly different from the NSS of his first term.

The new document says the economy and stability — under US leadership — will preoccupy America as it seeks to deter China in the Indo-Pacific. Unlike Trump’s earlier NSS, it no longer frames China as a systemic rival pushing an alternative world order.

It also contains far-right jabs at “sovereignty-sapping incursions” of “intrusive transnational organizations,” insisting that nations should “put their interests first and guard their sovereignty.” The NSS says the US will avoid “imposing democratic social change,” preferring “good and peaceful commercial relations.”

This tone departs sharply from the 2017 NSS, which accused China of “expanding its power at the expense of the sovereignty of others.”

Emily Harding, director of Intelligence, National Security and Tech Programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted: “The democracy agenda is clearly over. Beijing will love the explicit declaration of US preference for non-interference in other nations’ affairs.”

On Taiwan—whose location on South China Sea shipping lanes has “major implications for the US economy”—the NSS warns that a “potentially hostile power” could “impose a toll system” on the waterway or “close and reopen it at will.”

Here, Trump’s NSS urges US allies in Asia to “step up and spend, and do much more for collective defense.”

Japan and South Korea are mentioned only in terms of increasing their defense spending to “deter adversaries and protect the first island chain” — the strategic arc formed by Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines to keep China’s navy out of the open Pacific.

Conspicuously, there is no mention of the threat to Japan and South Korea from North Korea’s nuclear program.

Just as conspicuous is the omission of the Philippines, despite being a long-standing US treaty ally, host of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites, and a crucial link in America’s Pacific posture.

Malacañang should be reading this with palpitations.

Trump’s emphasis on allies “stepping up,” coupled with the absence of specific references to Philippine security, hints at a more transactional, less predictable alliance. The silence will be interpreted by some as a signal that the Philippines’ strategic value is no longer assumed.

The NSS’s narrow focus on China, while skipping over broader regional threats, reinforces the impression that Washington wants burden-sharing more than partnership.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must now confront a scenario in which US commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty is less certain than previously assumed. Without clear reassurance, the Philippines becomes vulnerable to intensified Chinese encroachment in the West Philippine Sea and other gray-zone coercion designed to test Manila’s limits.

Mr. Marcos should seek categorical clarity from Washington and demand a definitive public reaffirmation that the MDT remains fully in force and that US obligations extend to Philippine assets in the Pacific.

He can use the NSS’s own logic: a strong, sovereign Philippines is essential to the stability of the first island chain and to the freedom of navigation that the US economy depends on. He must also press for a joint statement that leaves no room for ambiguity.

At the same time, the President must diversify the country’s strategic partnerships and deepen security ties with regional actors equally concerned about Chinese assertiveness and American unpredictability.

This includes strengthening cooperation with Japan, South Korea and Australia, and enhancing coordination with fellow ASEAN claimants such as Vietnam and Malaysia. The aim is to embed Philippine security within a broader regional network, reducing reliance on any single ally.

Ultimately, Trump’s new NSS functions as a wake-up call. It flatters Manila’s sovereignty rhetoric while quietly eroding the assurances that underpin its sovereign security.

President Marcos must resolve this contradiction by compelling the US to back its respectful language with concrete, treaty-bound actions. And he must pursue the kind of self-reliance that ensures the Philippines is never again left strategically exposed to the shifting political winds in Washington or Beijing.

Clear-eyed diplomacy and a commitment to national resilience must now chart the course ahead.