Trump 2.0 official thread
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
- Start date
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
That's giving him a lot of credit for basically an instinctive response. It's not like he calculated that the US was behind and formulated the strategy; he threw everything he had at China and he ended up on the floor... twice, once from his gross mismanagement during COVID and the second time from China's rare earth retaliation. That's when he was like, "China makes the worst punching bag ever; I think they sent me a solid block of titanium/vibranium/adamantium/some bullshit like that and I broke both my hands just looking at it. 0/5 stars, would not recommend, would not buy again... definitely not a third time. Venezuela uses cotton balls." Picking softer targets after he got his ass handed to him is... animal level instinct. A lion that barely survived an elephant trampling knows to stay away from that animal and pick on baboons and antelopes next time. It's on par with passing the cognitive test for dementia.
Frankly speaking, I never simply believe that the leader of a major power is a complete idiot.
Since Trump's first term as president, his policies towards China, while not entirely well-thought-out, were at least what a US president should do; it's just that his opponent wasn't a country like India. After World War II, the US used various means to defeat the Soviet Union, Japan, and the EU. People naturally assumed the US could easily defeat China. But when their usual methods failed, everyone blamed Trump, which only shows that these people haven't grasped reality.
Trump is merely a symptom, not the cause, of America's problems. Looking back at all the US policies towards China, what would the outcome have been if these policies had been aimed at other countries instead of China? Even if Xi Jinping were to lead the US to suppress China, do you think the result would be any different?
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
No doubt the job of the US president is to preserve American power but it's how he went about doing it. His mismanagement of COVID, his attacks on the intellectual agencies of his own country, his assault on all of America's allies in the world are the worst way I can imagine for an American president to act if he wishes to gather up a great Western effort to confront China. And he's a billionaire who's been around the block more than a couple of times when it comes to dealing with the elite; he doesn't know that raging like a spoiled third grader on Twitter is a bad look that causes loss of respect?
While some of Trump's actions were indeed inappropriate, his measures towards allies are hardly entirely wrong.
Many people assume that America's allies will stand firmly with the US in its attack on China, but in reality, many of America's allies are free-riders. They will attack a dying prey like hounds, but they won't be foolish enough to attack a strong elephant. All the hounds will bark their teeth, drool, and bark, but they will all retreat. The United States is simply picking up the whip and lashing these hunting dogs that are trying to escape.
Trump's poor behavior on social media is hard for me to understand; perhaps it's because Trump has encountered setbacks on many issues that these actions seem ridiculous.
Engineer
Major
It wouldn't have matter how Trump managed COVID, because half the population of US, include those within the government, would do the opposite of what he says purely out of spite. As for US allies, they are a bunch of snakes anyway, they deserve what they are getting.