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Newsweek
a minute ago
- Newsweek
Why China is Becoming Donald Trump's Biggest U-Turn
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. When President Donald Trump launched the trade war with China in his first term, he did so amid a growing consensus in Washington that Beijing posed a long-term challenge to U.S. security, political and economic interests globally. Now, China watchers on both sides of the aisle are concerned at signs that Trump is pivoting away from years of efforts to compete with America's top geopolitical rival, which is likely to seize the moment and solidify its foothold in strategic industries that Trump wants to win back. The White House did not immediately comment when reached after hours. Setting Expectations While Democrats have criticized Trump's yearslong economic war with Beijing and his government's perceived lack of coordination with key allies, they were largely supportive of a tougher approach to China, citing accusations such as unfair trade practices, currency manipulation and unequal access to the Chinese market. The shift in Trump's first presidency had such far-reaching effects on Sino-American sentiment in both capitals that former President Joe Biden found the chill of the new Cold War hard to reverse. Biden not only extended, but later expanded Trump-era tariffs and further tightened controls on U.S. tech exports over fears they were accelerating China's military modernization. Trump campaigned on a promise to be even tougher. Matthew Pottinger, his deputy national security adviser from 2019-2021, predicted Trump would "pick up the baton and run with it" in pursuing Section 301 investigations into Chinese trade practices considered harmful to international and U.S. economic interests. In April, when the White House launched sweeping tariffs against friend and foe alike to bring Beijing to the negotiating table for a new trade deal, it appeared to signal the start of a new phase of the tech war, designed not only to address the trade deficit and revive U.S. manufacturing, but to ensure America stayed one step ahead of China in technological and military supremacy in an increasingly unstable world. The Biggest U-Turn of Donald Trump's Presidency The Biggest U-Turn of Donald Trump's Presidency Newsweek Illustration/Canva/Getty Reaction and Compromise The reaction from President Xi Jinping's China was swift and targeted. It played the tit-for-tat tariff game for a while but reached quickly for the nuclear option of cutting American firms out of its rare earths supply chain, weaponizing its dominance in the same way the U.S. had sought to curb Chinese access to advanced computer chips. Observers of the ongoing trade talks have sensed a shift in tone and approach, marked by a number of notable concessions in July—both symbolic and substantive—that they argued were overly conciliatory toward Beijing for the sake of securing an agreement. At the top of the list are emerging technologies and the Trump administration's decision to permit the export of U.S. tech—specifically Nvidia's H20 artificial intelligence chip—to China, following an intense lobbying campaign by company CEO Jensen Huang, who had argued that further curbs would only accelerate Chinese domestic breakthroughs in the race to dominate the global AI market. The decision has alarmed some of Trump's current and former allies in the GOP. "The H20 is a potent accelerator of China's frontier AI capabilities, not an outdated AI chip," said a July 28 letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, signed by Pottinger and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, among others. Last week, it emerged that Trump had broken precedent by refusing a request by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te to transit the United States as part of his wider visit to Taipei's remaining allies in Latin American—a diplomatic coup for China, which claims Taiwan as its own. In this file photo taken on June 28, 2019, China's President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka. In this file photo taken on June 28, 2019, China's President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who signed the letter, told Newsweek: "Several factors are contributing to the shifting climate on China policy. The Trump administration wants to open up China's market for American businesses, which is elevating the cooperative agenda for the moment." "The [Chinese Communist Party's] willingness to leverage U.S. dependency on critical minerals is also curtailing the willingness of some officials to anger Beijing," he said. Sobolik said: "Jensen Huang is putting Nvidia's profit margin ahead of U.S. national security. It's the job of leaders in Washington to put national security ahead of one company's economic interests. Selling advanced AI chips to China does the opposite: it equips China's military with powerful tools to target Americans. We need to win the AI race, not unilaterally surrender to the Chinese Communist Party." China's embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment after hours. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said last week that Beijing was opposed to "politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues and malicious attempts to blockade and keep down China" The Debate If Trump stays the course, it would be among the biggest pivots in what was to be a generational U.S.-China rivalry. But not all are convinced Trump is showing his true hand. George Magnus, an associate at the University of Oxford China Center, told Newsweek that Trump wants to demonstrate to the world that only he can strike trade deals with Beijing while his predecessor could not. "I don't think Trump and the administration are necessarily not thinking about China as a strategic adversary, but I think he wants to boast 'a win' in his first year in office and show to the world that America and China can do business together regardless," Magnus said. "We should also remember the U.S. has an America First investment policy memo which is unashamedly anti-China, and it's not unlikely that the U.S. will withdraw [most favored nation] status from Chinese goods. So there is a lot of nuance and ambiguity in Trump's poses and postures, all of which can be real," he said.
Axios
30 minutes ago
- Axios
Democrats go nuclear in redistricting arms race
Top Democrats are speaking — and acting — in increasingly existential terms over the audacious Trump-backed push to redraw Texas' congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Why it matters: The proposed Texas map is designed to net the GOP up to five House seats — potentially enough to decide the majority for President Trump's Republicans in his final two years in office. For many Democrats, this moment is an inflection point in the party's Trump-era identity crisis — one that could determine whether "fighters" or "folders" carry the torch into 2028. "This is a war. We are at war. And that's why the gloves are off, and I say bring it on," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared at a press conference Monday, accusing Texas Republicans of a "legal insurrection." Zoom in: More than 50 Democratic lawmakers fled Texas on Sunday — fanning out to deep-blue Illinois, New York and Massachusetts — to prevent the GOP-controlled legislature from voting on the new map. Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened them with daily $500 fines, felony bribery charges if the fines are paid for by donations, and the possibility of removal from office. The Texas state House issued civil arrest warrants for the Democrats who fled the state, though the warrants are only enforceable inside Texas. Zoom out: Outside Texas, key Democratic governors have launched an aggressive counteroffensive to try to neutralize the GOP's redistricting push. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing a November special election that would sideline the state's independent redistricting commission and ask voters to approve a new, legislature-drawn map favoring Democrats. In New York, Hochul said Democrats have "no choice" but to pursue a constitutional amendment to authorize new maps — though it wouldn't appear on the ballot until 2027 at the earliest. In Illinois, where the congressional map is already heavily gerrymandered, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has vowed to protect fleeing Texas Democrats and left the door open to further revisions of the state's map. Between the lines: Newsom, who's made no secret of his presidential ambitions, has openly accused Trump of "rigging" the midterms and suggested California could redraw its map to eliminate all nine GOP-held seats. His push for a referendum in just three months will be a legal and political high-wire act that — if successful — could become the defining achievement of his career. "If this works and Dems win the House in 2026 by <5 seats, 'I saved us from a second MAGA Republican trifecta' is a hell of a platform for Newsom to run [for president] on in 2028," tweeted Democratic pollster Adam Carlson. The intrigue: Hochul, who is running for re-election in 2026, has emerged as an unlikely face of the Democratic resistance. She called Monday for disbanding New York's independent redistricting commission and embracing partisan hardball, telling reporters that she's "tired of fighting this fight with my hand tied behind my back." "I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically, and shame on us if we ignore that fact and cling tight to the vestiges of the past," Hochul said. The bottom line: Both sides are keenly aware that a Democratic victory in 2026 would grind Trump's agenda to a halt and potentially lead to his third impeachment.
31 minutes ago
Sen. Elizabeth Warren touts investigations into Trump administration's federal cuts
As the Trump administration says it's continuing its effort to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government through cuts at key agencies such as the Social Security Administration and the Education Department, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is touting her ongoing investigations that she said work to protect millions of Americans from restricted access to higher education and retirement benefits. "We cannot stand by and let Trump abuse his power by ripping away the programs that help people breathe a little easier," Warren said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. "People voted Democrats into office to fight for them, and they do not expect us to roll over and play dead." The Massachusetts Democrat, a former teacher and fierce defender of public education, launched her Save Our Schools campaign this spring to investigate the administration's attempts to shutter the Department of Education. The investigations probe the Department of Education's cuts including downsizing the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office and changes to the student loan system. Democrats contend slashing FSA's workforce will hinder low-income Americans' access to college and urged the agency to rehire employees critical to its financial aid operations. In April, Warren launched the Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort to combat the administration's so-called "attack on Americans' Social Security" at the Social Security Administration (SSA), which is responsible for distributing retirement disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans. So far, Warren said her campaign has worked to cut down Social Security wait times on the phone and in person at regional offices. Warren urged President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency to take their "hands off" Social Security. She said her pressure campaign -- which included an inspector general review of the agency -- has impeded Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano from making additional layoffs after the agency announced it was aiming to cut roughly 7,000 people from its workforce. Warren said if Democrats do nothing, the Trump administration will "go ahead with no pushback." "There's a lot of anger over what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do to the Social Security Administration," she said. "We will push back with everything we've got." While Trump has vowed to safeguard Social Security and Medicare, some actions from the administration have raised concerns about potential impacts on the program -- including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent comments that the so-called Trump savings accounts for newborns could be a "back door" to start privatizing Social Security. Bessent later walked back the comments. The Trump administration says its workforce restructuring is part of the president's efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse and improve Americans' lives, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told ABC News. He added that the president's success through DOGE is "undisputed and legal." Republicans argue the SSA changes will ensure fraudsters won't tamper with retirees' benefits and streamline the experience by utilizing artificial intelligence. Warren said large-scale changes to these agencies could have dire consequences for Americans. "Save Our Schools and the Social Security War Room are two ways that, internally, the Democrats are fighting back against administration cuts that undermine people all across this country," Warren said. SSA has said the focus of its workforce reduction and organizational restructuring is to eliminate things that don't provide "mission critical" services. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon also stressed she is not defunding federal programs and will continue to perform all of the agency's "statutory duties." Through a combination of federal investigations, oversight, storytelling and even lawsuits, Warren told ABC News her campaigns have worked to provide the administration with checks and balances. Warren took credit for recently helping millions of students receive roughly $6 billion in FY25 title funding that is typically allocated on July 1, but was withheld for more than three weeks by the Office of Management and Budget for a "programmatic review" of education funding. During the funding freeze, McMahon told ABC News that the administration wanted to ensure that student programs had "the right focus" and funds weren't being misused. "We organized groups and individuals to pressure the department to release those funds...," Warren said. "This matters because that's the money that's often used for our kids with special needs, for after-school programs and others who help our kids get a high-quality education." Despite union criticism that the Education Department is carrying out unlawful layoffs, the department's spokesperson, Madi Biedermann, told ABC News the agency followed all applicable laws and regulations when implementing its reduction in force. Before the Senate left town, Warren vowed to continue fighting for the federal workforce. "The Trump administration is committed to undercutting Social Security and eliminating the Department of Education," she said. "This is not going to be a one and done."
