The US President spent three years dazzled by Xi Jinping, and told the Chinese President last year that he'd keep quiet about Hong Kong's protests while they were talking trade. But the coronavirus crisis has quickened a reordering of the global balance of power -- and now Trump has a political incentive to be the tough-on-China populist he promised to be back in 2016.
With the world fixated on public health and America's reputation shredded by its world-worst response to Covid-19, Beijing sees an opening. It's spitting back at US rhetoric, planting its flag everywhere in the South China Sea, bringing Hong Kong to heel and piling diplomatic pressure on Australia.
Meanwhile, the President needs a scapegoat for his poor handling of the pandemic -- and China makes the perfect US election-year villain. This week alone, the US comprehensively rejected Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea and stripped Hong Kong of trading privileges. America's friends -- like Britain, which just dumped China's Huawei from its new 5G network -- are being forced to choose which side they want to be on.
Trump isn't worried about plunging the world's most important bilateral relationship into years of tension: He does whatever is good for him at any given moment. But things may not improve if Joe Biden takes the oath of office next January; whoever the commander in chief, America needs a new China policy if it hopes to preserve its power in the Pacific and avoid a confrontation with the new superpower far earlier than expected.
The world may find itself in a new geopolitical epoch when it finally emerges from the pandemic.
No holds barred
Americans who watch the President's latest campaign ad might be scared to step out of their front doors -- at least that's the plan at Trump 2020 HQ. The campaign's new video perfectly encapsulates the emerging theme of the President's struggling reelection bid ("You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America") with alarming scenes of fires, criminals roaming neighborhoods and a nation lacking law and order -- based on Trump's false claims that the Democrat wants to dismantle police forces. It's a good taste of the no-holds-barred campaign that Trump believes he must wage to prevent the election from becoming a referendum on his botched handling of the pandemic.
'A bit bizarre'
Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that the US government's recent attempts to discredit him seemed "a bit bizarre" and that a scathing op-ed written by presidential adviser Peter Navarro was "a major mistake" for the White House. Speaking to The Atlantic, he said he still talks to members of the White House coronavirus task force daily -- but that "my input to the President is now a bit indirect. It goes through the vice president."
Goya-n crazy?
No, it's not the Home Shopping Network -- it's the White House.
The Trumps have made their wild reality-show life into a TV ratings bonanza ever since the President descended that golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015. Now they're taking care of the commercials.
The President and his daughter are mobilizing their social media accounts to support Goya, a massive manufacturer of foods from Latin America and the Caribbean. The company has faced a consumer boycott since CEO Robert Unanue praised Trump during a White House visit last week.
It may not sound like it all amounts to a hill of beans, but First Daughter and government official Ivanka Trump may have actually broken White House ethics regulations in promoting the brand. Of course, the stunt was designed to spark media outrage that could be used for a shameless pander to Hispanic voters, a key voting demographic alienated by Trump's hardline immigration policies. "Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the US and has every right to express her personal support," White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley said.
The President, never one to be upstaged, went one better, appearing with an array of Goya products on the Resolute Desk -- as if prepared to make a special gift offer to any purchasers of the coconut milk, beans, seasoning and cookies. The salesman-in-chief didn't blink at asking Ukraine to interfere in the election, so it's hardly surprising he ignored norms designed to stop the Oval Office from being turned into a market stall.
No doubt those conservatives who used to complain when President Barack Obama didn't wear a jacket and tie in the Oval Office have already expressed outrage to the White House.
'A lot of Northerners decided to go South'
What really caused the surge of coronavirus cases in America's South?
"A lot of Northerners decided to go South for vacations. The Southern groups had never really taken the mitigation steps that seriously, because they really didn't have an outbreak," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Atlanta-headquartered Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Tuesday.
"Northerners are not the cause of big outbreaks in the South," responded the Harvard Global Health Institute on Wednesday. "What the states that are seeing large outbreaks have in common is that they relaxed COVID-19 regulations around the same time in May, leading to the surge of cases seen in early June." The Cambridge, Massachusetts, institute pointed to Virginia as an example, noting that the state remained in phase 1 of its reopening through the end of May and has contained the spread of coronavirus "significantly better than its neighbors."
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that Fauci was speaking with The Atlantic magazine.
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