Dks01 China is already positioning itself as a trustworthy partner. Couple that with easy financing, and the US has lost the battle.
The first part is true, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they’ve “lost the battle” yet. In order to avoid losing it, however, they would have to play their cards very carefully, but instead of playing the game, the current guy is prone to throwing his hand in the air, cards flying all over the place, and yelling “I win!” before even placing any bets or seeing the others’ cards, and trying to take all of the chips. That’s just not how it works.
He talks about being treated unfairly, and about the U.S. “subsidising” almost every other country, but if you listen to what he says, one version of what he appears to want is for everyone else to make concessions and pay massive tariffs to effectively subsidise a tax-free existence in the United States. How that works for Social Security and other essential programmes is anyone’s guess; it seems to be fantasy-land economics, at best.
In the debate about the relevance and influence of the United States, he is forgetting one key detail: their influence, relevance and respect toward them are not to be taken for granted; we giveth, and we can taketh away! Said influence, respect and relevance are high-maintenance privileges that they have to strive continuously to earn, deserve and keep. He is systematically throwing all of the above to the ground and stomping on them, then still acting like he has some sort of authority to make demands of others (like the egg situation, for instance, among many others). If he continues looking like he wants to squander those privileges, someone else will step in to take their place.
He has the fleeting opportunity right now to admit that he made a mistake, apologise and correct course, but he seems hell-bent on squandering that, too. Well, he’s making the bed; I hope he and his citizens can live with the need to sleep in it. The longer this goes on; the longer the other branches of government remain spineless; the longer his citizens stall in asserting themselves; the more monumental the task of re-establishing themselves will be. And that’s assuming anyone is still willing to let them back in.
