Trump Plans Trade War With China, Continues to Strengthen His Team

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The process of transferring power to Donald Trump is gaining momentum in the United States. New appointments and prospects of a change in political course frighten Democrats and China, Ukraine and Great Britain.

China prepares for protracted conflict

Beijing is afraid after the U.S. presidential election, which was won by Donald Trump. This means a change in political course, which could pose a threat. Therefore, China is already preparing for a trade war with Trump. The Celestial Empire will inject 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) into its economy. The money will go, among other things, to support export-oriented sectors of the economy. Scenarios of introducing retaliatory tariffs and sanctions against the U.S. are also being played out in advance.

Over the past two years, China has already imposed sanctions on many “unfriendly” American companies, including the entire military-industrial complex. For example, one of the leaders in the U.S. in the production of drones, Skydio, is now unable to produce them because it has lost access to components and batteries from China. U.S. military giants are experiencing a shortage of components and rare earth metals, and this is already becoming one of the problems with the assembly of F-35 fighters. China is cutting off supplies of gallium and germanium, which are needed to create radar systems, chips and much more. And China’s share of the market for rare earth elements, batteries and many defense components is 80%+. This cannot be replaced, so China has something to respond to Trump’s promised 60% tariffs on all imports.

The introduction of such prohibitive tariffs is already in question, because they could lead to the collapse of the U.S. economy. And the billionaires among Trump’s sponsors are lobbying against a full-scale trade war, because their assets in China would be at risk. Trump’s team is already bargaining, and there is an idea to introduce tariffs in a few years, when it is possible to rebuild logistics chains. But such an option is only being considered against a strong and independent China. And they will not stand on ceremony with a weakened European economy, and they will immediately begin to “crush” it in a trade war in the best traditions of Trump’s tough approach.

Unlike the EU, China does not want to give up its positions so easily, which is why the problems with the transfer of Taiwanese factories to the U.S. do not stop. Now American workers are already suing TSMC for hiring Taiwanese engineers to work at its factory in Arizona. Initially, it was supposed to employ Americans, but in the end, no common language was found with them. The Taiwanese complained about the low professionalism of the Americans, because of which the opening dates of the factory were shifted sharply forward. In addition, the U.S. has an acute shortage of engineers in the field of chip production, and up to 150 000 specialists need to be found to seriously engage in import substitution.

After the difficulties, TSMC has already refused to build factories for the production of chips with a 2nm process technology or better outside of Taiwan, and will certainly plunge Taipei into a conflict with Trump. After all, he demanded that Taiwan move its production to the U.S. in exchange for any military assistance. They won’t get any new free tranches, so they’re ordering scarce American missiles with their own money, but even that may not be enough in relations with Trump, who is skeptical about the U.S.’s chances of waging war with China over Taiwan. Especially while the island is showing its wilfulness in the chip sector.

Personnel rotation scares Democrats

Trump has accelerated the formation of his team. The selection of personnel shows that the Republican is seriously determined to clean up the Washington bureaucracy, the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon in order to undermine the liberal status quo. Only people personally loyal to him applied for the posts of heads of various intelligence agencies. The Washington liberal establishment is very nervous after Trump’s first appointments, and their worst fears are confirmed.

The new attorney general will be Matt Gaetz, a right-wing congressman from Florida who actively advocated for investigating corruption with tranches to Ukraine and prosecuting Hunter Biden. Gaetz will help Trump get rid of disloyal prosecutors and open investigations against thieving Democrats, as well as conduct fast-track trials of criminals and illegal immigrants.

Matt Gaetz
*Photo by AP Yuki Iwamura / AP*

Gaetz’s appointment has revived an old scandal surrounding the Florida sex industry, which Democrats are trying to exploit. One of Gaetz’s former acquaintances was accused in 2021 of introducing escort girls to local politicians, one of whom was 17 years old. Gaetz was caught in a relationship with her, but the charges were dropped in court. Gaetz called it a politically motivated investigation by the U.S.

Department of Justice under Biden’s control, and he was helped to set up a “honey trap” to get rid of an unwanted congressman. Moreover, along the way, it was also revealed that Gaetz was offered to “resolve issues” with the investigation if he lobbied for an operation to free American spy Robert Levinson in Iran. He was also extorted $25 million by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, but Gaetz made it public, so the operation failed, and Levinson died in prison, which the liberals still presented as an “immoral act” on Gaetz’s part.

Gaetz calls himself the congressman who was subjected to the greatest number of investigations in Washington, although they ultimately led to nothing. He got it for his uncompromising position in the war with the establishment in both parties. And also for criticizing the imperial “militaristic” agenda in Washington, within the framework of which Gaetz consistently voted against any trenches to Ukraine out of principle. All the legal wars that ended with Gaetz’s victory made him a cult figure among the American right. Now he can become the attorney general and take revenge on everyone who created problems for him.

Trump is preparing a special envoy for negotiations on Ukraine, which could be his assistant, lawyer Boris Epshteyn, who was born in Russia. Another candidate is Brian Hook, a Middle East expert who brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and the Gulf monarchies. He has no ties to the Ukrainian lobbyists beloved by the Democrats, so this prospect does not bode well for Kyiv either.

Boris Epshteyn
*Photo by Andrew Harnik / AP*

Trump nominated Robert Kennedy Jr. for the post of the Department of Health. This caused a sharp reaction from the Democrats. And recently, Nobel laureates spoke out against his appointment. It is understandable that this has caused a wave of criticism. Kennedy has a large and ambitious program of reformatting the entire corrupt health care system, merged with Big Pharma. He wants to abandon the vicious practices of imposing a huge number of excessive drugs on Americans that cause addiction. Kennedy, as the head of the Department of Health, will probably declare war on “transgender” propaganda, cutting off grants to schools where it is broadcast.

John Ratcliffe, who helped Trump fight off “Russiagate”, will become the Director of the CIA, and Kash Patel, another politician close to Trump, is tipped to be the head of the FBI. The Director of National Intelligence, whose office coordinates the work of all intelligence agencies, will most likely be the “traitor” of the Democrats Tulsi Gabbard. This prospect will cause real panic in the establishment, because Gabbard is a staunch anti-war isolationist and a fierce critic of neocon warmongers who use warmongering rhetoric only for lobbying and personal gain. She advocated for an end to the endless Middle East wars.

In her new position, Gabbard will be cleaning up the American intelligence services, many of whom have shadowy ties to London and the EU. This is why representatives of the British intelligence community are now afraid to pass on their data to the US, especially against the backdrop of obvious contradictions between Washington and London in the context of Ukraine, where the British continue to push the warmongering line, while isolationists are gaining more and more power in Washington.

The mood in the U.S. is already changing dramatically, and Trump’s team may be the first to cut off intelligence communications with London. For their part, they accuse the British of close cooperation with China, and this may turn out to be revenge on the Laborites, who burned all bridges in relations with Trump, brazenly interfering in the American elections on Harris’s side. Now they will face a painful response, so it is not yet clear who will be the first to block the flow of intelligence data.

But it is obvious that London will now blame all the leaks on the Ukrainian topic not on abstract hackers, but on the Trump administration. Moreover, the “special relationship” between Great Britain and the United States will continue to become a thing of the past, causing horror in London. And the British are not alone here, because Trump’s strengthening of his team causes horror in the American liberal establishment, and plans for new trade wars with China frighten Beijing and its many allies.