Reminder that we are only on day 19 of January. It’s gonna be a long year…
200 executive orders with one MAJOR exception - TARIFFS - we'll see, there's still 1 more day for the death match infighting within the Trump team (Musk/Bessent vs Navarro/Greer/Rubio + Bannon/Deep State/Neocons). In fact it might be Musk vs all of the rest of them. Bessent is a wimp, just listening to his confirmation hearing (I would be too if it means seeing my name and signature on all paper currency bills).
the IRONY to all the allegations of Tiktok subterfuge/propaganda/espionage as excuses for its banning, is that Tiktok has already (inadvertently) served an invaluable purpose in that it has revealed Trump's true intentions with tariffs. All this talk about China activating Tiktok come a shooting war with the US is baloney. That's not going to happen. Instead, what we are seeing is Tiktok already exerting effects on American politics and society in a historically unprecedented way. And it is all happening organically without outside influence.
My opinion now is that even if Trump in coming days/weeks/months does put on tariffs, it should be clear that his ultimate goal is to reach some sort of deal with Xi to benefit America, rather than full on accelerated decoupling that the 'For God and Country' crowd are hoping for. He himself may just be the 2nd most dovish person in the White House towards China other than Musk.
This possibility, of course, is in contrast to the desire of deep state neocons, whose true ultimate aim counts on using the excuse of 60-100% tariffs to kick China while it's economically 'weak' so as to finish off RMB's chances of ever threatening dollar hegemony. I had always assumed Trump was in this camp, especially since China stiffed him in the first trade war when it didn't fully meet the requirements of the trade agreement, and when China sent COVID 19 over which was hands down the major reason why Trump lost the 2020 election; not the mention the economic threat it has grown to become since Trump last left offfice.
So why in the heck would Trump think he isn't being strung along again instead? 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me'. I still have my doubts he would be so gullible.
