“Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, tweeted last night: ‘Every foreign leader I’ve spoken with at #APEC thinks Trump presidency has been enormous gift for the Chinese. Every single one,'” according to Axios’ weekly China blog.
This is echoed by the lead item in today’s Real Clear Markets, the headline for which is “When Trump Puts ‘America First,’ Other Countries Put Us Last.”
Singapore’s The Strait Times wants the Japan-led Trans-Pacific Partnership minus the US to become even more powerful, by adding India and China: “With the addition of the two Asian giants, it would then cover countries with a total population of about three billion instead of 500 million, and a combined gross domestic product of US$25 trillion (S$34 trillion) instead of US$13 trillion.”
China politicizing physics with planned supercollider
The world’s biggest super-collider will soon be started by China, with Communist Party direction to insure state control and likely military applications. FP‘s feature article reporting on the Chinese plans concludes: “Nature carries no political ideology nor should the interpretation of nature. The laws of physics do not come with Chinese characteristics and nor should the practice of physics.”
Russia is back in Afghanistan. It’s now funding the Taliban it once fought, in tacit alliance with Pakistan, Iran, and China.
But Indian diplomacy may have edged China out of an important Nepalese hydroelectric project: “India has expressed concerns about the predatory financing mechanisms employed by China under the OBOR in small, poor countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka which puts them in a debt trap to the Chinese and might impact their foreign policy choices,” The Times of India reports.
Obama circles attack Trump-Saudi alliance
Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick takes aim at the anti-Trump, pro-Obama critics of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After she wrote her column, the New York Times unsurprisingly ran its own op ed attacking the Crown Prince.
Iranian fighters in Syria
Congress wants to see more clarity as to what the Trump administration will do to stop the Iranian takeover of Syria.
With US leadership pro-Iranian under President Obama and prevailing uncertainty regarding US Mideast plans under President Trump, Egypt is hedging its weapons options by shopping for arms in Paris.
Saudi Arabia similarly has been considering arms purchases from Russia, despite the excellent record of US Patriot missiles in defending the kingdom and its Gulf allies from enemy missiles.
Republican flagship publications worried about “Trump effect”
Although President Trump’s approval rating is up slightly to 46% following his Asian trip, even generally pro-Trump publications such as The Daily Caller are worried about the “Trump effect” manifested in the Nov. 7th elections, which swept dozens of Republicans from local offices across several states. The lead feature of another pro-Trump publication, American Greatness, argues that it isn’t just the blue states that are going against Trump and the Republicans:
“[O]ne sees the same worrisome trend that emerged last year: highly educated, upper-middle-class voters are shifting towards voting Democratic up and down the ballot. If this trend continues, it will wipe out most if not all of the political gains President Trump’s shift towards blue-collar populism made, leaving conservatives even worse off than they were before.”
Even some of Trump’s base is disenchanted: “ICE agents rebel, say Trump ‘betrayed’ them by retaining Obama’s people.”
Moore losing Hannity; Democrats’ hypocrisy
Inconsistencies in Alabama Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore’s alibis are threatening to turn even erstwhile supporter Sean Hannity against him.
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, under indictment, getting one-fortieth the coverage of Roy Moore accusations
Republican sources meanwhile are complaining of the hypocrisy of liberals only now talking openly of John F. Kennedy and William Clinton’s moral failings, when the criticism no longer counts (see here and here), but refusing to discuss the current scandal concerning New Jersey’s Democratic senator, Bob Menendez.
The Alabama special election date is December 12th. Republicans would do well to pass their tax reform before that date or ask Alabama’s governor to postpone the election until later. On December 12th, they could lose their majority in the Senate.
Click here to go to yesterday’s Founders Broadsheet (“Bolton sees Lebanon as almost Iran’s now”)
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