Many of our conservative friends are extremely concerned that President Trump’s visit to Red China, and his effusive praise of Communist Dictator Xi Jinping, signals a weakening of our security posture towards the Communist Chinese behemoth.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who sometimes plays a conservative on TV, and has never looked at a map without seeing a country he thinks we should bomb, put it this way:
“China's allies are all dirtbags… Iran, Russia. If China stopped buying Iranian oil, the war would be over. [They should] Help us open the Strait of Hormuz.”
Graham later appeared on FOX News to warn that tariffs on China could be imposed if cooperation is not provided, saying economic pressure will be used if assistance is not extended.
If they change, China will be rewarded. If they don’t, they'll be punished, threatened Senator Graham.
Graham is, in one sense not wrong – China’s allies are all dirtbags – and part of the anti-American coalition the Red Chinese assembled to advance their drive to global domination.
But his threats and bluster imply that President Trump and his team are unaware of the Communist Chinese threat and are doing nothing about it.
From our perspective Senator Graham’s remarks are about six months late, and are reflective of a “One D” chess mentality, that assumes the Trump administration – like past American presidents – has no strategic plan.
And nothing could be further from the truth.
President Trump has a vision, based on his unshakable belief in the power of America’s innovation economy, and a plan to deploy that power to build a peaceful and prosperous world based on reciprocal trade and the pursuit of our national security and economic interests.
And President Trump brought with him the generals in the army he is using to achieve that vision – 30 CEOs representing pretty much the entire U.S. economy.
Jensen Huang. Tim Cook. Elon Musk. Larry Fink. Boeing. BlackRock. JPMorgan. Meta. Visa. And more representing trillions of dollars in economic power and market share.
Normal summits fill the plane with cookie pushers from the State Department. Trump sent the people who actually build, manufacture, invest, and deploy capital at scale and in effect said, here’s my army, and its bigger and more powerful than yours.
As Thomas A. Whitaker observed in a post to X, President Trump’s delegation to Beijing is the most concentrated display of American private-sector power ever assembled, and he just sat down across from the Chinese Communist Party and said: we're open — but it'll be reciprocal. That's not diplomacy. That's leverage walking into a room and introducing itself.
And that’s the central element of President Trump’s plan to counter Red China’s plan.
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to Sean Hannity in an interview conducted on Air Force One as it conveyed the American delegation to Beijing, Communist China has a plan, and President Trump has a plan, “…they believe they will be the world’s most powerful country, they’ll surpass the United States, and they have a plan to do it, and they’re executing on that plan. And I don’t blame them. If I were the Chinese Government, I’d have the same plan.”
And President Trump’s plan to counter their plan is, “We have to be able to make our own stuff. We cannot depend on China – or any country for that matter – for 100 percent of anything that we need. When you depend on any other country for 100 percent of what you need, you’re very vulnerable. Likewise, China wants to – they want – China wants the world to be dependent on them for 100 percent because it gives them strength and leverage. So that’s a perfect example of an area in which our interests are not aligned. And – but the President is very committed to bringing back factories, bringing back industrial capacity of the United States, and diversifying where we get our rare earths, our critical minerals, our supply chains.”
Leverage vs. leverage, and as Communist China’s economy is an export-driven economy, our vast market gives us much more leverage – if we enforce reciprocity.
Will President Trump’s strategy to rebuild American manufacturing and wean America from Communist Chinese supply chains, while dangling access to American markets, including our capital markets, defeat Red China’s all domain, unrestricted warfare against us?
And does he have the right “economic generals” onside to execute it?
We remain skeptical of some of them, notably Larry Fink of Blackrock, who has made billions financing enterprises associated with the Communist Chinese military.
Will the Red Chinese try to play the President, will they lie, continue to steal our intellectual property, ally with ant-American regimes, and continue to conduct their all domain, unrestricted warfare against us?
Of course they will.
However, unlike Senator Lindsey Graham’s empty bluster, and past presidents, who had no plan and were entirely reactive – and unlike Obama and Biden whose plan was to surrender to the Communists – President Trump has a plan based on a coherent strategy and understanding that our competition with Red China is not something that will be resolved on a date certain any time in the near future.
The President’s plan to deploy America’s vast economic leverage to stymie Red China’s global ambitions is the most sensible way to keep America ahead in what promises to be a generations-long, relentless competition with the Communist Chinese. We should give it the time and support necessary for it to work.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who sometimes plays a conservative on TV, and has never looked at a map without seeing a country he thinks we should bomb, put it this way:
“China's allies are all dirtbags… Iran, Russia. If China stopped buying Iranian oil, the war would be over. [They should] Help us open the Strait of Hormuz.”
Graham later appeared on FOX News to warn that tariffs on China could be imposed if cooperation is not provided, saying economic pressure will be used if assistance is not extended.
If they change, China will be rewarded. If they don’t, they'll be punished, threatened Senator Graham.
Graham is, in one sense not wrong – China’s allies are all dirtbags – and part of the anti-American coalition the Red Chinese assembled to advance their drive to global domination.
But his threats and bluster imply that President Trump and his team are unaware of the Communist Chinese threat and are doing nothing about it.
From our perspective Senator Graham’s remarks are about six months late, and are reflective of a “One D” chess mentality, that assumes the Trump administration – like past American presidents – has no strategic plan.
And nothing could be further from the truth.
President Trump has a vision, based on his unshakable belief in the power of America’s innovation economy, and a plan to deploy that power to build a peaceful and prosperous world based on reciprocal trade and the pursuit of our national security and economic interests.
And President Trump brought with him the generals in the army he is using to achieve that vision – 30 CEOs representing pretty much the entire U.S. economy.
Jensen Huang. Tim Cook. Elon Musk. Larry Fink. Boeing. BlackRock. JPMorgan. Meta. Visa. And more representing trillions of dollars in economic power and market share.
Normal summits fill the plane with cookie pushers from the State Department. Trump sent the people who actually build, manufacture, invest, and deploy capital at scale and in effect said, here’s my army, and its bigger and more powerful than yours.
As Thomas A. Whitaker observed in a post to X, President Trump’s delegation to Beijing is the most concentrated display of American private-sector power ever assembled, and he just sat down across from the Chinese Communist Party and said: we're open — but it'll be reciprocal. That's not diplomacy. That's leverage walking into a room and introducing itself.
And that’s the central element of President Trump’s plan to counter Red China’s plan.
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to Sean Hannity in an interview conducted on Air Force One as it conveyed the American delegation to Beijing, Communist China has a plan, and President Trump has a plan, “…they believe they will be the world’s most powerful country, they’ll surpass the United States, and they have a plan to do it, and they’re executing on that plan. And I don’t blame them. If I were the Chinese Government, I’d have the same plan.”
And President Trump’s plan to counter their plan is, “We have to be able to make our own stuff. We cannot depend on China – or any country for that matter – for 100 percent of anything that we need. When you depend on any other country for 100 percent of what you need, you’re very vulnerable. Likewise, China wants to – they want – China wants the world to be dependent on them for 100 percent because it gives them strength and leverage. So that’s a perfect example of an area in which our interests are not aligned. And – but the President is very committed to bringing back factories, bringing back industrial capacity of the United States, and diversifying where we get our rare earths, our critical minerals, our supply chains.”
Leverage vs. leverage, and as Communist China’s economy is an export-driven economy, our vast market gives us much more leverage – if we enforce reciprocity.
Will President Trump’s strategy to rebuild American manufacturing and wean America from Communist Chinese supply chains, while dangling access to American markets, including our capital markets, defeat Red China’s all domain, unrestricted warfare against us?
And does he have the right “economic generals” onside to execute it?
We remain skeptical of some of them, notably Larry Fink of Blackrock, who has made billions financing enterprises associated with the Communist Chinese military.
Will the Red Chinese try to play the President, will they lie, continue to steal our intellectual property, ally with ant-American regimes, and continue to conduct their all domain, unrestricted warfare against us?
Of course they will.
However, unlike Senator Lindsey Graham’s empty bluster, and past presidents, who had no plan and were entirely reactive – and unlike Obama and Biden whose plan was to surrender to the Communists – President Trump has a plan based on a coherent strategy and understanding that our competition with Red China is not something that will be resolved on a date certain any time in the near future.
The President’s plan to deploy America’s vast economic leverage to stymie Red China’s global ambitions is the most sensible way to keep America ahead in what promises to be a generations-long, relentless competition with the Communist Chinese. We should give it the time and support necessary for it to work.
