Trumpist Chaos-Monkey Feces-Flinging in Trade Policy Continues. & It Is Turning into a Foreign-Policy Dumpster Fire...
Trump desperately wants to be on the phone with Xi Jinping, the dog’s has poked its nose into the steel trap, and corrupt media pretending to sanewash everything they can by pretending it is all 11-dimensional chess from people who think AI is a steak sauce…
In the left-hand ring of the chaos-monkey three ring circus that is the Trump administration, I see this AM that the Bessent Affinity within the Trump administration is trying to make something that might resemble a move of sorts.
The Bessent Affinity is now retconning all the Trumpist chaos-monkey feces-flinging in trade policy. They are going all-in. It all always was, they say, an 11-dimensional chess strategy to resurrect the Obama Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump blew up on Day 1 of his first presidential term.
And I see four Politico reporters—Megan Messerly, Ari Hawkins, Phelim Kine, and Felicia Schwartz—pretending, unprofessionally, to take it seriously.
They ask no hard questions, but imitate lapdogs begging for treats:
Megan Messerly, Ari Hawkins, Phelim Kine, & Felicia Schwartz: Trump wants to make a deal with China. Here’s how he’s trying to make that happen <https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/16/trump-china-trade-strategy-00291979>: ‘The administration’s theory of the case is that tariff deals with other countries will isolate China — and urge them to come to the table…. [as] the U.S., will isolate China, disrupt the Chinese supply chain and threaten to cut the country off from the rest of the world…. Announcements from companies moving manufacturing operations to the U.S. and its broader sectoral-based tariff strategy… [are] key components in getting Xi to cooperate…. “Once you see a lot of countries — not just in southeast Asia or Asia, but all over — you’ll see that they’re willing to make deals with America, and that exerts pressure on China to hopefully come to the table,” the official said…. “Get all of Asia but China to the table, incentivize them with lower tariffs and U.S. companies will leave China,” said one person close to the White House. “And yes it makes sense. It’s happening already…”
And this naturally drives Dan Drezner—recently having moved from his job at Tufts in Medford to become Whateley Chair in Thaumatropic Energies and Dimensional Rift Studies at Miskatonic in Arkham—into Shrill Unholy Madness:
Dan Drezner: The Trump Administration Is Just Grasping at Trade Policy Straws Now <https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-trump-administration-is-just>: ‘Look who discovered a decade-old trade gambit!… Why… is this such an exasperating read?