Democrats and neocons got played hard by Trump on this.
No wonder they seethe so much about him. He knows how they think.
It's not hard to beat them. Trump knows the game. Soft power, and all that, is all crap.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Whoever controls intelligence, police, investigative agencies and ultimately, military power, has the actual power.
In this kind of reality, Trump is actually closer to Mao than the entire US apparatus. And because Mao's philosophy is
objectively correct, that's why Trump is successfully beating his opponents
They are not the same of course, but in this case, Trump has finally figured what real power means