Don Tow's Website

Trump has been in office as the President of the U.S. for his second term for only two months, he has made numerous political moves, both in domestic policies and in international policies. I don’t think many of these policies are well thought out or follow a certain theoretical framework. His policies, besides reflecting on the characteristics of Trump as a self-centered person whose primary interest is himself, his wealth and reputation, and a narrow view on what is good for the U.S., I don’t think that these policies reflect a well-thought-out domestic or international policy, so when these policies receive critical reviews, Trump would backtrack. Nevertheless, I think politically Trump is very much against China, so his policies always reflect a policy that is critical of China and takes measures that impede the natural growth of China and the accompanying growth of the rest of the world.

This is clear from many perspectives. From his cabinet members who are always been severe critics of China, such as Secretary of State Mario Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Although he advocates the Monroe Doctrine that other countries should not have any significant involvement in North America, or even Central America or South America, he is intimately involved in forming alliances in Asia, far from the U.S.’s home base in North America. This includes forming military alliances such as with Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia. One also cannot just take his words for granted. One must see what he is doing with his actions. Even though on the surface he seems to be friends to Putin of Russia, but that may be part of his strategy to create more differences between Russia and China, to split Russia and China, to avoid having to face both Russia and China when conflicts arise.

Trump has been creating all kinds of tariffs, with many of them creating higher prices on products sold by American companies, and ultimately hurting Americans in the pocket books, thus adversely affecting the American economy in an adverse way in multiple steps of the economic ladder. Trump needs to understand the ultimate consequences of his tariffs. One also needs to understand the impacts on a country as it tries to improve the overall economic and political impacts on the country. While trying to improve its economic conditions, it must also try to make sure that it did not become a subordinate of another country for the forseeable future.

The largest advanced chip manufacufacturing plant is the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) which is located in Taiwan. U.S. is also trying to move more of its chip manufacturing capabilities from Taiwan to its new and expanding manufacturing plant in Arizona. Besides the fact that these chips may be owned by China since Taiwan is a province under China, there is also the question whether the people who staffed TSMC in Taiwan can be transpended quickly to Arizona, as the expansion to the Arizona facility was part of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities which was announced on April 8, 2024. But numerous set backs, including key differences between Taiwan and the U.S.’s workplace culture, have delayed the beginning of this chips production until 2025 or beyond.

Just like everything else, Trump is doing many things, shaking the foundations from well established positions, eliminating numerous jobs, creating uncertainties in the lives of numerous people, without providing a clear theoretical framework guiding these changes. But we will survive and we will live on beyond the Trump years.