Against the backdrop of a shifting diplomatic landscape, US President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit. While Washington frames the visit, delayed by the war in Iran, as a pivotal effort to rebalance ties, the bravado of maximum pressure masks a deepening domestic vulnerability. Trump’s arrival comes at a critical juncture; his administration faces multiple crises. The looming 2026 midterms have intensified pressure from a restless agricultural…
Without a commitment to respecting China’s red lines and moving away from hypocritical double standards, Trump’s visit will remain nothing more than a hollow piece of political theatre, incapable of achieving anything of substance.
And since Trump respects nobody and nothing (though he does jump all the way past respect to groveling servility with Putin), and since hypocrisy is central to his entire life, neither of those things is going to happen…
And in fact, it’s near certain that it won’t even rise to the level of political theater (except to the most ignorant of his acolytes) - that, just as happened last time, what will actually happen is that Xi will humiliate Trump by outmaneuvering him at every turn and Trump won’t even realize it.
