Category: Popular knowledge

Mr. Trump sold himself a cowboy. But the USA is an automatic car. And it turns out the new President only knows the concepts of max speed and handbrake. Who will supervise?

In this paper, I argue that Mr. Trump is a “two-speed” president who takes apart long-running US strategy to China.

‘The Trump trade crisis’ is being discussed by many as a great debacle, landing on the same conclusions. In this piece, I present that the President follows his past dreams. Second, that the real problem is that the target, not the process, of his dream aligns with long-term US-China trade policy.

And history is our guide. There are two topics we need to get familiar with.

First, a multitude of stories went somewhat unnoticed, that tell us that Mr. Trump has long-term agendas.

The second, now totally unfound in media, is that successive US administrations had built a strategy to deter China following a hostile route and stealing intellectual-property.

And unfortunately Mr. Trump’s long-term agenda may easily dismantle, and already eroded, the longstanding strategy that is in the interest of the U.S.

First, let’s flash out what we see Mr. Trump doing day and night. This is what I call the first speed. A lot of garbled information, Trump said this, Trump said that, there is strategy, there is no strategy, he did it, he didn’t do it. 

About a week ago Mr. Trump said:

“They were saying that for Easter, please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs? I said, we don’t want to do that¹“.

And with that he introduced new taxes on trade with varying degrees on all countries, including islands populated only by penguins². 

This is what the media is focused on. And what else they could do, drawing conclusions, forming opinions, telling everyone Mr. Trump is a sucker. Go home. End of article.

But, there is a second-speed of Mr Trump. It is not exciting. It is not media sensationalism. It does not leave room for fantasy and opinion making. So it does not get spotlight.

Therefore it’s not in front of you now, that Mr. Trump has been very consistent with his foreign policy. In 1987, Mr. Trump argued in a paid advertisement³, that he believes that fiscal deficit is a problem and that countries should pay for protection. 

And since, he has persistently criticized U.S. allies for not paying their:

“fair share⁴“

for defense, a position he maintained for decades. And while doing so, Mr. Trump frequently criticized⁵ American political leadership as weak, ineffective, and outmaneuvered by foreign countries long before entering politics himself.

What makes the above relevant now? It is the other consistent topic of the President. Mr. Trump expressed skepticism about free trade agreements and advocated for protectionist policies long before running for president. In 2016 for instance, Mr. Trump said:

“We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what we’re doing⁶.”

Prior to his presidency, Mr. Trump criticized China’s trade practices for decades, consistently viewing them as taking advantage of the United States economically.

Lastly. Among many other states, the USA has kept a watchful eye on the doings of China. And since at least 2009 with the Obama Presidency, administration⁷ after administration⁸ moved to strengthening US national security, trade and Made-in-America products that were specifically designed to protect from Chinese measures. All this, in order to secure the stop of technological transfer (or steal) and to improve national security, which is arguably one if not the most important service a state must provide to its citizenry.

In retrospect, the new trade conundrum initiated by President Trump is somewhere in the direction of longstanding U.S. strategy. The U.S. has been consistent with building national security⁹ and stop the stealing¹⁰¹¹ of U.S. intellectual property run¹² by China¹³. On the other end, for almost three decades, a trade war between China and the USA has been a very dear topic of President Trump. And it has been the dream of Mr. Trump to retaliate against allies and smaller states or media¹⁴. And talk Good about states¹⁵ manipulating¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸ the President¹⁹.

But it was not long-term strategy of successive U.S. Presidents to throw the good out with the bad. Handling China is one thing and that had been done previously following procedure. But risking inflation and price increases and put the welfare of the U.S. in shambles is not procedure. We can make sense of all this, and see the scenario that there is a high chance that China was the only real target of the trade chaos and others were expendable and probably the target of “Art²⁰ of the deal”. But it is not U.S. interest to be hostile with allies and not-knowing weaker states, not mentioning penguins and leaving out adversaries²¹. It is the almost 400 million American citizens whose interest must be followed.

To correct direction, Congress and Senate must do its job. The job to make and clarify policies and direct the executive branch, in other words the President, to revise path and follow a route of long-term U.S. policy. Congress must also disincentivize the President from turning state business to his own private business. And make Mr. Trump understand that running the USA is state matter. We all love a President who takes the state to his heart. So Congress must incentivize the President to grab opportunities that are reliably good for the public.

And as for the civic society. The public perception of Congress is 31%²². Worst, in the last 16 years it was lower only once. And I think it’s partly due to the numbness created by continuous sensations.

Now what?

Let overstimulating sensations slip away. And tell people information they can use to make decisions.

About the author

Balint Katona writes about topics that go unnoticed.

Footnote

1. Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, Vaughn Hillyard, Gary Grumbach and Megan Lebowitz. 2025. White House plans to use real eggs for Easter Egg Roll, despite strain on supply and price concerns. NBC News. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/white-house-real-eggs-easter-egg-roll/6210803/) ↩︎
2. Laerke Christensen. 2025. Yes, Trump placed tariffs on uninhabited group of islands occupied mainly by penguins. Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-tariffs-heard-and-mcdonald-islands-penguins/ ↩︎
3. Donald J. Trump. 1987. There is nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure. New York Times. https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/donald-trump-1987-nyt-ad_edited-1.pdf ↩︎
4. Naomi Lim. 2025. Trump to demand NATO allies ‘pay their fair share’. Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3345637/trump-demand-nato-allies-pay-fair-share/) ↩︎
5. Pot Opinions Staff. 2016. A transcript of Donald Trump’s meeting with The Washington Post editorial board. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/21/a-transcript-of-donald-trumps-meeting-with-the-washington-post-editorial-board/ ↩︎
6. Andrew Buncombe. 2016. Donald Trump accuses China of ‘raping’ the US with its trade policy. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-accuses-china-of-raping-the-us-with-its-trade-policy-a7009946.html ↩︎
7. Press Office. 2012. FACT SHEET: The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Trade Enforcement Record. White House. https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/fact-sheets/2015/january/fact-sheet-obama-administration’s ↩︎
8. Statements and Releases. 2024. FACT SHEET: President Biden Takes Action to Protect American Workers and Businesses from China’s Unfair Trade Practices. White House. https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/14/fact-sheet-president-biden-takes-action-to-protect-american-workers-and-businesses-from-chinas-unfair-trade-practices/ ↩︎
9. Derek Scissors. 2021. The Rising Risk of China’s Intellectual-property Theft. American Enterprise Institue/National Review. https://www.aei.org/articles/the-rising-risk-of-chinas-intellectual-property-theft/. ↩︎
10. Glenn Chafetz. 2023. How China’s Political System Discourages Innovation and Encourages IP Theft. The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies https://saisreview.sais.jhu.edu/how-chinas-political-system-discourages-innovation-and-encourages-ip-theft/ ↩︎
11. Michael McCaul et al. 2020. Egregious Cases of Chinese Theft of American Intellectual Property. White House. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Egregious-Cases-of-Chinese-Theft-of-American-Intellectual-Property.pdf ↩︎
12. Walter G. Copan. 2022. China’s Ally in Stealing Western IP: The United States. Center for Strategic International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas-ally-stealing-western-ip-united-states ↩︎
13. Tsang, S., Cheung, O. Xi Jinping’s Approach to Acquire Strategic Technology from the West. East Asia 41, 301–323 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-024-09431-https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12140-024-09431-1 ↩︎
14. Peter Hessler. 2017. How Trump is transforming rural America. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/24/how-trump-is-transforming-rural-america)
    ↩︎
15. Uri Friedman. 2019. INSIDE THE COLLAPSE OF TRUMP’S KOREA POLICY. The Atlantic. I https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/12/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-diplomacy-denuclearization/603748/ ↩︎
16. Harry Cheadle. 2017. A Timeline of Trump’s Long History with Russia. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-timeline-of-trumps-long-history-with-russia/ ↩︎
17. Lily Rotham. 2016. When Donald Trump Tried to Meet With a Russian Leader in the 1980s. Time. https://time.com/4437403/trump-gorbachev-history/ ↩︎
18. Abbie VanSickle. 2017. Confused by Trump’s Russia Ties? This timeline breaks it down for you. Medium. https://medium.com/@abbievansickle/timeline-of-trumps-relationship-to-russia-5e78c7e7f480 ↩︎
19. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-timeline/ ↩︎
20. Scott Horsley. 2018. How Artful Is Trumps’s Dealmaking? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617677566/how-artful-is-trumps-dealmaking ↩︎
21. Peter Goo, 2025. Trump’s trade war targets an island full of penguins, but Russia faces no new tariffs. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-trade-war-penguin-tariffs-islands-antarctica-rcna199652 ↩︎
22. Congress, Job approval, Politics, Trends A to Z. 2025. Congress and the Public Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx ↩︎