While president-elect Donald Trump hasn’t declared Manifest Destiny as his rationale for wishing to expand American territory beyond its present boundaries, he very well might.
Readers with even a basic understanding of U.S. history will know about Manifest Destiny — the doctrine that the democratic administration of President James Polk relied on to expand continental U.S. beyond the 26 states of the early 1800s. The rationale marked America’s belief in itself as exceptional — a republic, no longer colonies of a monarchy — destined to expand across the North American continent.
