His
mishandling of the pandemic is the key reason why he lost the reelection. We
have the best medical delivery in the world, but now the worst country in
handling this pandemic. We lose credential by comparing to the deaths from this
pandemic in China.
His
deglobalization
policy makes him unpopular even among his allies and particularly to China. The
global companies do not support this policy as they would lose a lot of money
from foreign operations (factories and foreign market) in addition to the
foreign profits converted back to depreciated USD. We need to subsidize some
industries such as making masks and devices / medicines for this pandemic. He
also woke up China to tell them not to depend on us esp. on computer chips.
He
has gained support from the workers; some jobs have already moved back to U.S.
However, the benefits of deglobaliation may not compensate for the losses.
The
capital rampage brings his downfall and did a lot of harm to Republicans, and
he will never recover politically. I cannot figure out why he did this, as
there are no benefits. It must be his ego covering his eyes. I can conclude
that Trump is a gussy guy without thinking his actions thoroughly (i.e. not
cunning enough to be a politician). Some argue that he may gain a lot of
donations. I do not think so; who will support a politician who has lost most
of his political power? Financially his businesses will not be welcome by many
sponsors.
The
other conclusion is Trump has a lot of followers. Most think their living
standard is lowered due to China and globalization, and most do not know the
outside world (obvious from the counties of his supporters). If he is not
impeached successfully, he would run again in 4 years. In any case, the country
is deeply divided, and Biden will have a tough time.
Compared
to Hong Kong’s riot, the property damages were less severe, and the rioters
were less organized and stupid without the masks. Hong Kong police looked like
pussy cats by comparison.
Many
comments on Hong Kong riots and national security law slap our cheeks, while we
are still laughing at others. They are “beautiful scenery” describing the Hong
Kong riots, “disbanding the Hong Kong police”, “rioters are revolutionary”,
etc. Double standard or we are tasting our own medicine?
The
social media ban Trump, have we violated his freedom of speech? We can argue
that our national security is more important than our freedom of speech. Most
of these media companies such as Facebook and Twitter do not like Trump; even
his favorite FoxNews is changing their support. These companies like
controversial posts to sell their stuffs.
Many
global companies do not like Trump due to the threats to their foreign
operations. They are the wealthy and powerful force. Trump has underestimated
the difficulty in moving the supply chain away from China as evidenced by Apple
and Tesla.
We
have become the laughing stock and we have not set up a good example of policy
we are preaching. One Brazilian said that the riot was not successful (i.e. the
government had not been overthrown), as there was not a U.S. embassy in
Washington D.C. He meant that many uprisings in foreign lands were financed and
aided by us. This article is brief as
many topics have been discussed in this book.
Trump
could be the first president that solved the trade deficit problem and could be
reelected. The pandemic changes all these for the worse, and it actually helps
China. The major issues are:
·
Trade deficit
with China. From the last figure, we have the second highest deficit with
China. The tariffs do not help. With the quick recovery of the pandemic,
Chinese products particularly those for the pandemic such as masks are in high
demand for almost all other countries beside China.
·
We gain some jobs
before the pandemic. The supply chain has not been moved back to the U.S. as it
is a very risky venture. About ¾ of the corporations oppose it. Moving to the
other low-wage countries such as Vietnam does not really work; they do not have
educated work force and adequate infrastructure as China. In addition, their local
market for assembled products such as iPhone cannot compete with China. It is a
loss-loss situation.
·
Our Federal
deficit (= incomes – expenses), unemployment, national debt and our life
expectancy are heading for the worse.
·
A Washington Post
with the title “No vaccine to cure ignorance and irrationality” argued that the
pandemic would not end soon due to our ignorance and irrationality (Trump is
the problem on this).
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The above article is from my book "China and U.S.: Apocalypse or Co-Prosperity".
