Donald Trump announces abrupt change to US foreign policy

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to stop the US “racing to topple foreign regimes”, in an indication that his administration will adopt a non-interventionist approach to conflicts overseas.

Yet in the same appearance, on a victory tour of America following the presidential election result, he promised to boost military spending and laid out a foreign policy that would focus on destroying Isis.

“We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with,” Mr Trump told the crowd.

“Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS, and we will."

The billionaire businessman made the statements while officially introducing his choice of defence secretary, General James Mattis, dubbed “Mad Dog Mattis”, to an audience near the Fort Bragg military base in Fayetteville.

Instead of investing in wars, he said he wanted to spend money to improve America's infrastructure.

Yet despite his apparent anti-interventionist approach, he reaffirmed plans to expand the military and boost its funding by calling on Congress to roll back caps on defence spending. Such promises have already boosted the value of arms manufacturing in companies around the world.

“We don't want to have a depleted military because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn't be fighting in.

"It's not going to be depleted any longer,” he said, adding that the policy of “intervention and chaos” must come to an end.

Mr Trump implored Congress to approve a waiver to let Mr Mattis, who retired as chief of the US Central Command in 2013, serve as defence secretary. Under current US law a military leader must have exited the armed forces at least seven years prior to taking up the position.

The President-elect warned that if the waiver was not granted there would be “a lot of angry people”.

“Mad Dog Mattis” has often said Washington lacks a cohesive strategy in the Middle East, criticising the government for taking a piecemeal approach.

“Is political Islam in the best interest of the United States?” Mr Mattis said at the Heritage Foundation in 2015, talking about the challenges presented by the separate issues of Isis and Iranian-sponsored terrorism.

“I suggest the answer is no, but we need to have the discussion. If we won’t even ask the question, how do we even recognize which is our side in a fight?”

Critics noted similarities between the President-elect's rhetoric in Fayetteville and that which he adopted towards the Iraq war while on the campaign trail.

Mr Trump claimed to have expressed strong opposition to US involvement in the conflict before it began in 2003, a statement that has long been disputed.