Trump promised us he’d put America First, but instead he and Musk are surrendering to Beijing
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Trump counselor Alina Habba responds to concerns of China buying up American real estate on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
Whenever any American president makes foreign policy decisions, their first question should be, "Who benefits?" The American people and our allies, or those who want America to fail, and are deliberately working to make that happen?
It’s outrageous that China sends deadly fentanyl into American communities. What’s more, China’s cybertheft of our hard-earned trade secrets is the "greatest transfer of wealth in history." And China is constantly trying to erode our alliances, because allies are our greatest strength when it comes to advancing our interests and thwarting China’s.
Most Americans agree that China is the most significant rival of the United States and the West.
President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping
But instead of putting America First, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk – who has sprawling business interests in China – are putting China First, gutting assets we need in order to stay ahead of them. This heightening trend is making America less safe and less capable of overcoming China’s economic abuses. And it extends to Ukraine.
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China – like Iran and North Korea – is in league with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, providing Putin with billions of dollars in resources even as Russia murdered tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and kidnapped 20,000 Ukrainian children.
Trump’s position on Ukraine is not just a "gift" to Putin, as the Kremlin put it, but a windfall for China and a loss for the West. NBC recently reported, "'China is the real winner': Trump's reversal in Ukraine aids Beijing, Western officials say."
In 2022, Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state, wrote, "Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare to the world what some U.S. policymakers have been aware of for some time — that the Moscow-Beijing axis is real, and it is a growing threat to the United States and to freedom worldwide." National security advisor Mike Waltz, then a congressman, agreed.
Both men also correctly pointed out that rewarding Putin’s invasion would directly incentivize MORE wars of aggression, not fewer.
Like Reagan said, "Wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." History obliterates the shortsighted lie that Trump – echoed by Russia and China – is currently attempting to sell to the American people: that making this invasion as lucrative for Russia as possible will somehow deter powerful countries from starting wars with smaller countries in the future.
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To that point, one of China’s primary reasons for supporting Russia in Ukraine is that they are hopeful for a precedent that makes it easier for them to invade Taiwan. Last week, The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Trump’s Ukraine Shift Unsettles U.S. Allies in Asia."
To everyone who, like me, is concerned about actually preventing "World War III," never forget that any Russian gains in this process increase the likelihood of more destabilization and death. For that same reason, appeasing Russia also threatens to worsen the inflation that is already rising on Trump’s watch - breaking his promise that he would end it "immediately."
Remember the weight of the enormous price spikes we all felt because of Russia's invasion. If Putin comes out ahead in Ukraine and then turns on other neighboring countries – as senior Russian officials have discussed – the economic pain for Americans will be many times worse than what we lived through in 2022.
And when it comes to our standing in the world, China’s top complaint with the United States is that we have been extraordinarily successful in mobilizing allies and like-minded countries to outmaneuver their self-serving designs. That geopolitical edge sets us apart from China and Russia, and it is one they would both literally kill to take from us. When Trump estranges countries who have the same disagreements with China that we do, he’s doing Beijing’s dirty work for them.
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In that vein, China knows a weaker NATO means a weaker America. China even falsely accuses NATO of "cooperating with the U.S. government for an all-around suppression of China."
NATO’s mutual defense pact that Trump criticizes has been activated once: after 3,000 innocent Americans were massacred on 9/11. Together with our armed forces, the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Denmark (who Trump has antagonized without provocation), Poland (who Russia is now threatening) and others deployed troops to Afghanistan.
Ukraine – even though they were not a member of NATO, had no obligation to help us, and are one of the poorest countries in Europe – sent soldiers too. Did China? No. And Russia offered terrorists bounties if they killed American service members in Afghanistan.
There’s more. In his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said, "You should get rid of the CHIPs Act." The CHIPS Act is the most effective China competitiveness law in American history. Together with the Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump also wants repealed, the CHIPS Act is fueling America's manufacturing resurgence. Undoing either law would send life-changing manufacturing jobs from American communities right back to China.
And by cutting off federal research that is a crucial driver of American innovation, Trump and Musk are weighing American down in our global economic competition with China.
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And the only country benefiting from Elon Musk’s illegal dismemberment of USAID is China, which has spent over $1 trillion on their equivalent, the "Belt and Road Initiative." Does any American think China is spending that money because of their benevolence?
In the 21st century, every country’s prosperity is directly tied to building strong economic relationships all over the world. China knows this. Why doesn’t Trump?
Shortly after Musk’s decision, a Republican national security expert said, "Senior officials in Japan, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand have told me that China is swooping in, offering to replace the United States as the partner of choice."
Taken together, this means Trump has broken another core promise of his campaign. Trump promised us he’d put America First, but instead he and Musk are surrendering to Beijing. Just like he broke his promise of lower costs on "Day One," raising those costs with tariff taxes on working families so that he can lower taxes for the rich.
The theme of Trump and Musk’s economic record is selling middle-class families out to the rich. Now we know the theme of their foreign policy is selling out America’s interests and the West to Communist China.
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Andrew Bates is the founder of Wolfpack Strategies, a strategic communications consulting firm. He was Senior White House Deputy Press Secretary in the Biden-Harris Administration and a top spokesperson on the 2020 Biden campaign.
