Played Like A Guqin

Trump's in China now, heaping praise on their leader and blaming the US for all inequities in trade relations. (Tillerson, Trump's backhoe, is pretending it was "tongue in cheek.") Having no ability to think long or deep, as Xi plays three-dimensional chess to Trump's slapjack, Donald's the perfect stooge for world leaders anxious to overtake America's role in the world. His aims are personal glory, or the perception thereof. A smart and powerful guy like Xi must be rubbing the skin off his hands in delight.

To American exceptionalists, this ought to be sobering:

... At the World Economic Forum in January, Mr. Xi proclaimed China the new champion of free trade and globalization. His “One Belt, One Road” initiative — with funding from the made-in-Beijing Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank — will invest $1 trillion in linking Asia with Europe through a network of sea routes, roads, railways and, yes, bridges. China will gain access to resources, export its excess industrial capacity and peacefully secure strategic footholds from which to project power...  

... The Trump administration has belittled the United Nations, withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, jettisoned America’s commitment to the Paris climate accord, tried to renege on the nuclear deal with Iran, questioned America’s core alliances in Europe and Asia, disparaged the World Trade Organization and multicountry trade deals, and sought to shut the door on immigrants. 

Mr. Xi? He has grabbed leadership of the climate-change agenda, embraced the World Trade Organization’s dispute-resolution system and increased China’s voting shares at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Beijing is forging ahead with a trade pact that would include the major Asian economies plus Australia and New Zealand, but not the United States...

All those world leaders whose power Trump envies and glorifies surely see him as their wildest-dream opportunity to turn the US into a second-rate power. And they needn't try all that hard, as Trump is doing most of it himself.

The above-linked opinion piece is by a former Assistant Secretary of State. Read the whole thing. It's hard to find fault with his reasoning.

Make America Great Again. As Trump does the opposite in every way, every day, his supporters, blinded by their fears and hate, stupidly stand by, cheering it on, missing the point entirely.