Answer:
Trump had several foreign policy initiatives that resonated with his base:
- Renegotiating trade deals was perhaps his most important foreign policy platform. Trump ran a campaign against NAFTA, because of the adverse effects it had on American manufacturing and employment.
- Being tougher on China was also an important Trump proposal. Trump accused China of currency manipulation and unfair trade practices like intellectual property theft. This resonated a lot with Trump's base.
- Ending involvement in Syria was a third important Trump proposal. Trump, during the campaign, was against American intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and repeatedly said that American should work with Russia to end the war, instead of being Russia's adversary.
They worried because they were afraid of the Soviets. The missile gap was a false belief that the Soviets had many many more missiles than the US and that if they decided to attack it from far away it would win easily. It turned out in the end that it was fake and that the Soviets actually had fewer ballistic missiles than the US.
