China’s Rise Aided by the MAGA Monkey on America’s Back

China Plans for the Future, While Trump Plots His Personal Fortune

Donald Trump and his know-nothing MAGA cronies have single-handedly positioned China to dominate the 21^st Century—which is unfortunate, because I’m way too old to learn Chinese. Even if America was blessed with stellar leadership, staying ahead of the Chinese juggernaut would be a monumental challenge. The current clown car in Washington all-but ensures America will lazily slouch to second tier ignominy and relinquish superpower status.

Sadly, the sane half of America is having to compete against both Chinese innovation and MAGA degeneration. That’s too heavy a lift against an aggressively ambitious global competitor that seeks a new world order. While China looks smartly toward the future, the U.S. president is preoccupied with petty feuds. While the Chinese leadership has a vision, Donald Trump is mired in division, and vindictive score-settling, with his endless and ever-growing enemies list.

The great irony is that the MAGA cult is rapidly wrecking the United States under the auspices of making it great. They sing jingoistic jingles and ostentatiously wave the flag, in their showy effort to pose as super-patriots. Instead of elevating the country, however, they are quite literally “loving” America to death. They somehow think their cheap “USA” cheers and chauvinistic chants are adequate replacements for the smart policies and sound planning needed to maintain America’s lead.

China is basically kicking our ass in every way imaginable. In a New York Times op-ed, Kyle Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, chillingly outlined China’s ascendence:

The Chinese electric carmaker BYD, which Mr. Trump’s political ally Elon Musk once laughed off as a joke, overtook Tesla last year in global sales, is building new factories around the world and in March reached a market value greater than that of Ford, GM and Volkswagen combined.

China already leads global production in multiple industries — steel, aluminum, shipbuilding, batteries, solar power, electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, 5G equipment, consumer electronics, active pharmaceutical ingredients and bullet trains. It is projected to account for 45 percent — nearly half — of global manufacturing by 2030.

How is our intrepid president responding to China’s meteoric rise? By going on a gift and grift tour in the Middle East, where his voracious self-interest subsumed America’s national interest. Trump arrived in the oil rich Arabian peninsula acting like a gyrating stripper cavorting around a seedy, neon-lit bar. He went from one country to the next sidling up to wealthy sugar daddy sheiks to hustle them into stuffing his MAGA-red G-string with gilt.

Instead of engaging in international diplomacy, his soiled efforts felt like an episode of The Price is Right. But instead of Bob Barker giving Trump a “BRAND NEW CAR!”, the Emir of Qatar handed Trump a “BRAND NEW $400 MILLION AIRPLANE!”

If this weren’t humiliating enough, our Klepto-in-Chief was bribed by the United Arab Emirates with a shady crypto deal and plans for a new 80-story Trump Tower in Dubai. The Associated Press reported:

Abu Dhabi announced it had chosen USD, World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, to back a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Critics say that allows Trump family-aligned interests to essentially take a cut of each dollar invested.

The world knows Trump is for sale and he is also taking bids from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Serbia. Even Vietnam is getting in on the action, with Hanoi approving a Trump Organization $1.5 billion golf project. A lifelong failure at business who bankrupted casinos, Trump may soon become one of the world’s richest men by pawning the presidency to capitalize off conflicts of interest.

At a moment of peak competition with China, Americans were stupid enough to put a felon in the White House, who is preoccupied with ginning up criminal conspiracies. To protect his mafia-like racket, Trump is feverishly wrecking institutions that would have offered accountability. Stanford political scientist Bruce Cain, put the negative impact of Trump in perspective:

The war on academic research will have long lasting implications for technical innovation in America. Scientists who cannot support their labs while President Trump holds their funds hostage for the sake of MAGA theater over the next four years will take their labs elsewhere.

China will be a winner in this. Uncertainty about government commitments will make it harder for investors to take basic and applied research in universities and move it to market. The longer the time horizon for investments, the more trust and stability matter. In the end, disrupters like Trump and Musk leave us with a much bigger legacy of doubt and uncertainty than achievement.

The one thing that baffles me about China is that they continue to deal with Trump as if he’s a serious world leader, rather than a political prostitute. They could save time by bribing him like everyone else. Our president would surely trade Taiwan’s freedom and independence for a Trump Tower and golf resort in Hong Kong. Xi Jinping could probably close that deal in 15 minutes and leave a few extra Yuan on the motel dresser.

Perhaps, Beijing doesn’t see the need to deal, because they are waiting for the U.S. to self-destruct. The administration has gutted parts of our government and deliberately driven federal workers to suicidal despair. The Washington Post chronicled the decimation of our nation’s dedicated workforce:

In four months, Trump and a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk have hacked off chunks of government in the name of efficiency, with tactics rarely seen in public or private industry. The cuts so far represent roughly 6 percent of the federal workforce, but they have effectively wiped-out entire departments and agencies, such as AmeriCorps and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was slashed 85 percent; the Education Department was cut in half.

Some have found themselves fired, rehired, then let go again. Many have been ridiculed as “lazy” and “corrupt.” They’ve been locked out of offices by police, fired for political “disloyalty,” and told to check their email to see if they still draw a paycheck.

Finally, the president is destroying our two largest advantages over China, which are key alliances and soft power. The president has alienated our friends and his weakness has led to an emboldened Russia menacing our NATO partners.

Traditionally, the United States was preferable to China because we valued personal freedom and economic liberty. Trump has severely narrowed the gap with Beijing, creating a new regime of repressive authoritarianism, not to mention his decimation of institutions, eroding of the rule of law and destabilizing markets.

Sadly, I’m not sure if America will recover from this disaster. There might be too many fools in our country to compete with China. I often see these MAGA ignoramuses when they visit Medellin, where I live part-time. Many of these bloated American tourists dress like slobs and stand out for being loud and entitled. For example, they expect Colombian waiters to speak English, in a Spanish speaking country—yet they haughtily demand new immigrants in the U.S. “SPEAK ENGLISH!”

Really, these jerks remind me of Vice President J.D. Vance, in appearance, obliviousness and tone. In April, he derisively remarked that the Chinese people are “peasants”, while Trump pigeonholed China as a maker of cheap toys, such as dolls. Our top leadership seems clueless about the potency of modern China. It’s this toxic marriage of ignorance and arrogance which makes me think China is about to eat our lunch and lead the 21^st Century.

China has their own problems, including demographic concerns, an autocratic system and a real estate market crash. Perhaps, there is still time for the U.S. to rebound and lead the world, with millions of smart, dedicated, Americans committed to innovative solutions. However, we are about to lose four critical years in the competition for AI, clean energy, advanced robotics and higher education.

The deadweight of Trump is dragging us down to irrelevancy. How do we keep up with the Chinese bullet train when America has an 800-pound MAGA Monkey on its back?