I _really_ appreciate your comment.

I was initially reacting in a very knee-jerk and emotional way because I personally see this as a Bad Thing® as it does not align with my values and my wants for my country (US). Your comment made me think about it from a different perspective.

It saddens me to think that you may be right - that this may be deliberate - but you made me at least acknowledge that it might be the unfortunate 'will of the people', or at least some of them, even if not a majority.

There is a useful phrase for this sort of thing - "the cruelty is the point". A lot of the trump administration policy makes more sense if you realize that it isn't about benefiting themselves but is actually about harming those they hate, even if those policies also hurt themselves.

Your cosmopolitan “values” of celebrating global human labor trafficking are simply a means to exploit the global working class.

For most working Americans, and effectively many foreigners as well, global human labor trafficking is an objectively bad thing.

Can you explain how my "values" celebrate global human labor trafficking?

That’s what comprises the overwhelming amount of immigration to leading western nations. And it’s what governs, lobbies, and votes for pro-immigration law.

Even better - if you think universities are leftist and want to defund them, this deprives those universities of tuition.

But at what costs... Even if everything works as expected, the mid to long term cost will be ridiculously high (in term of money invested/spent, reputation, etc) just to satisfy a support base.

That depends entirely on your planning horizon. If you take a long term view, the cost is penurious. If you take a short term view (which our society is built around), then it’ll win you the next election, and nothing after that matters.

Nothing of modern politics is about building a better world or country for anyone - it’s just about winning at any cost.

Tactically, this move is canny. Strategically, it’s dire - but those setting the strategy will be dead of old age before it comes home to roost, so.

I feel that explains how the US found itself in this mess.

This post nicely summarizes the game. The effects of short-term tactics are meant to show once Trump is unable to get re-elected for whatever reason. At that point, some fool will get into power and will have to handle the aftermath.

If my goal was to make money for myself and my corporation (I do that as POTUS since I highly influence all the major funding decisions), I'd do the exact same things. My insta-base will realize the long-term effects on themselves when I'm dead or, at the very least, out of the picture. But, when that time comes, I would be leaving a legacy with a level of wealth/power that will allow mine to absolutely dominate politics for decades.

In other words, Trump is like water and rolls with all punches including big ones like COVID. I'm not American, but one can definitely admire the epitome of self-interest.

I’m sure it’s a rounding error on the economic, social, and physical damage that was done by pretending COVID 19 was a liberal hoax for a month

> They could be even smarter, and once they’ve got the students out of the country, terminate their courses

I hope you were sarcastic there..