The Wall Street Journal asks Donald Trump how he would persuade Xi Jinping to leave Taiwan alone:
“Oh, very easy,” the former president says.... “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you”—meaning impose tariffs—“at 150% to 200%.” He might even shut down trade altogether.
Mr. Gigot: “Would you use military force against a blockade on Taiwan?” Mr. Trump: “I wouldn’t have to, because he respects me and he knows I’m fucking crazy.”
I guess this is his all-purpose answer for everything. I wonder if he realizes that you can only do it once? Or that if he followed through we'd be short of gallium, antibiotics, and iPhones in pretty short order? Probably not.
how many F bombs has Trump dropped in the last two months? Compared to last year at this time?
Seems to me that in times recently past he maintained a public persona of someone who didn't swear as much - at least not in public or to the press
He needs to shore up the malignant masculine vote.
Xi Jinping doesn't think you're crazy. He thinks you're a tool to be used. Just like Putin does. This is just the usual bluster from a coward. The tough guy act from a paper dragon.
Trump is all hat and no cattle. Xi's best bet for invading Tawain may be under Trump. I don't think Trump would defend Tawain, cause Trump would be out of his depth in any real crisis. And Xi could stomach whatever economic sanctions Trump throws at China after the invasion.
I can hear it now – Trump will be blaming Tawain for the invasion.
All Xi Jinping has to do is offer Trump a real estate deal and he'll welcome the Chinese invasion of Taiwan as the greatest thing ever. That's how easy he is to manipulate.
China only exports about 3% of its GDP to the US, and the number is growing smaller every week as economic ties between the two countries fray. Just as the US grows less reliant on its economic ties with China, so too, does the latter grow less reliant on us. These things are reciprocal.
Also, it's pretty clear by now that Xi doesn't prioritize topline GDP growth in any event. He prioritizes geopolitical gains. He's told Chinese people they must be prepared to endure hardship ("eat bitterness"). The PRC is preparing for war. I'm not suggesting war is inevitable, but they're preparing for it.
As usual Trump comes across as the guy down at the American Legion on this third boilermaker. (Not that Trump ever served his country, of course).
Looks like we're still their largest trading partner, and there does seem to be some tariff evasion.
The problem is not just the total amount of trade, but the concentration in given sectors. With most companies having next to no excess capacity, and manufacturers all doing "just in time", i.e. no inventory kept on hand, even small reductions can have large ripple effects.
China is having a demographic bomb go off, so to speak. Population is dropping and aging, and growth will stagnate--akin to what Japan's economy has been doing. Their economy has a huge housing crisis--and the government's packages to stabilize it may buy some time, but that bubble will eventually burst. The military build up is also one way to stimulate the economy, but China's muscle flexing has driven the neighbors into the arms of the US.
Xi is threatening to re-unite Taiwan with mainland China by force if needed. If he stuck with the one-party, two system set up in Hong Kong, then force wouldn't be needed. I just hope he doesn't decide to use an attack on Taiwan as a distraction from problems on the mainland.
I saw an article on how the US may help defend Taiwan (Wired or The Atlantic I think). The said they would flood the straight with drones to prevent an invasion. Maybe someone should inform the US military of where drones come from. Reapers with Hellfire missiles is sooo last decade.
"Maybe someone should inform the US military of where drones come from."
I'm pretty sure that the US military isn't planning on "flood[ing] the straight" [sic] with DJI hobby drones.
"that if he followed through we'd be short of gallium, antibiotics, and iPhones"
Given that Trump has followed the RWNJs into being a full anti-vaxxer and has promised to withhold funds from schools with vaccine mandates... I expect he wouldn't care about being out of antibiotics, even in the highly unlikely event he knows anything about where antibiotics come from.
Dopey Delusional Donny hard at work being the buffoon he is….
He never disappoints does he?
Trump has completely embraced the rhetoric being spread among the MAGA. He believes not just his own bullshit but also their bullshit.
This is what's more worrying – nothing more dangerous the a psychotic (losing touch with reality), suicidal (eventually the in group will become the out group), fanatic (the unwillingness to listen or change).
Thinking economic hardship will ever dissuade a dictator is a chump's game. Ask Putin, Maduro, Castro, Un, etc. how much they hate being sanctioned. The caviar still sits on the cracker, and the champagne still flows at their table. Everyone else can eat dirt.
But as stated above, Trump is a blustering fool.
Elon Musk is giving away $1 million a day to anyone in Pennsylvania who signs his petition advocating support for the First and Second Amendments,
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-promises-award-1-mln-each-day-signer-his-petition-2024-10-20/
But, why not the rest of the Constitution?
And, as long as he's throwing money around, if he did this every day for the whole year it would only be $365 million, or the same amount he'd be blowing on ketamine.
I think this would be an excellent idea for anyone with a pile of money that high.
er, rather a random drawing daily of those who sign the petition, not actually everyone.
Just switch out "anyone" to "someone" and your original comment made perfect sense. I expect everyone did that for you already.
What a jerk that guy is.
Now that I think of it, if Musk gave away a million dollars a day randomly to people in the US you would have a better chance of winning that than you have of winning the lottery.
I suspect the appropriate comparison is to Nixon.
Obviously Nixon was hated by exactly the same polities as those who hate Trump. And he was, as a human being, close to as awful as Trump, probably haunted by some of the same social/personal issues.
Even so, the Nixon presidencies were hardly disasters. The US steered its way adequately through a series of unprecedented events (eg collapse of Bretton Woods, and oil embargo) while getting out of Vietnam and doing a pretty good job of refocussing the Cold War in a less problematic direction.
And one of Nixon's strengths (as he saw it, and as others who speak positively of him, like Robert D Kaplan, see it) was his unpredictability, his likelihood to respond "excessively" or at least unexpectedly, to provocation...
His response to COVID was, for as long as he could get away with it, to claim that it wasn't a problem, no big deal, everything was fine. If there was the threat of war with Iran or China his instinct would be to see what polled best. Doing as little as possible to avoid being criticized is obviously his instinct when he's not the one initiating the horror.