More correct predictions: Trump and China

Time Magazine: It’s Time to Give the Trump Administration Some Credit for North Korea Progress.

A year ago, the left predicted Trump would be a disaster for diplomatic/foreign relations, the economy, national security, America’s ‘national image’, etc. The NRO-right predicted similar, but to a lesser extreme.

Now even Time Magazine, a left-wing publication, has to admit that not only have things not fallen apart, but that Trump has actually helped foreign relations.

“The Trump administration deserves credit for increasing the pressure and deepening even further the alienation between China and North Korea,” says Professor John Delury, an East Asia expert at Yonsei Univeristy in Seoul. “And globally, there have been a lot of bilateral relationships where Trump has put North Korea at the top of the agenda.”

400+ days into Trump’s presidency, the world has not come to an end, and the evidence as shown by stock market performance, steady economic growth, and and the absence of geopolitical crisis, points to stability. I predict his entire term will be uneventful.

This could mean:

Trump is more competent than as portrayed by the media.

Trump’s power is limited to such an extent that if he were incompetent, the damage he can do is limited.

Pinker’s ‘long peace’ and the ‘great moderation’ still prevail , thanks to the strong U.S. economy, diplomatic relations, free trade, and other factors.

Not only is the power of the Executive branch limited by bureaucratic inertia, but the private sector, which is much smarter, efficient, and more nimble can thrive in such circumstances by not being encumbered by an overbearing, over-effective government. Because the private sector runs parallel to the public one, which is one of America’s underrated strengths that makes it unique from other developed countries, it makes sense that multinationals such as Boeing, Google, and Walmart are thriving in spite of government dysfunction.

And from The Atlantic, published on March 2018, China Loves Trump:

There, the assembled members of the media would press officials on Trump’s latest anti-China comment or Twitter blast—on tariffs, trade wars, North Korea, or China’s “theft” of American jobs. Reporters expected righteous denunciations of the kind China routinely unleashes against South Korea, the Philippines, and other countries perceived as even notionally affronting Chinese interests. But they never came. Day after day, the spokespeople stubbornly, and then impatiently, accentuated a positive view of the prospects for U.S.–Chinese ties under Trump.

This echoes what I wrote over a year ago regarding how contrary to the media narrative of Trump and China being enemies, instead have cultural similarities and a sort of fraternity, and is another example of how this blog is correct and a few steps ahead of the mainstream narrative.

Whereas Obama’s relationship with the Chinese leadership was superficial and the leadership only pretended to like him, with Trump the respect is real and mutual. Even if they don’t agree on everything, which they don’t, the mutual respect is still there. Trump’s IQ is around 115-125 by my estimation (which is the same as Obama’s too, likely), but unlike Obama, Trump does not pretend to be smarter than he is, and the Chinese, who value authenticity and masculinity, respect that. But also, the IQ of the typical foreign bureaucrat is probably around 110-125, which is similar to Trump’s IQ. America, unlike most foreign countries, is unique in that it has a high-IQ ‘priesthood’, whereas the intellectuals of most other countries have much less clout and visibility. This high-IQ priesthood cannot understand why so many foreign leaders respect Trump, because they assume that foreign leaders are as smart as they are, which they aren’t.