Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression this is what most of the world wanted? And if not the world, then most elites in the US?

I speak both from public and personal history: when American leadership signed its various trade treaties with China back in the 90s and earlier, opening itself up to the swift transfer of manufacturing to its one-time enemy, was American leadership not signaling its strong desire to diminish American power for the sake of peace?

And on a personal level: my hippie parents had often railed against American imperialism and voted for candidates they thought could stop it. What did they (and other similarly-minded folks) think would happen once America withdrew from the world stage? Do people who think the same way today believe America will grow stronger by pulling back?

Having been around since the late 60s, I can only say this attitude has been in the making for a long time. I can't point to college sit-ins or Nixon going to China or Carter turning over the Panama Canal or the US-China Relations Act (2000) or anything specific stating 'this is the definitive moment', but this desire for a weaker, more isolationist America is neither surprising nor accidental for those of us who've been watching it grow. It's ultimately what my parents and their contemporaries wanted. It's... dream fulfillment.

My thoughts on this is it appears the 2nd Trump administration is obviously better for everyone _outside_ of the US (with the exception of Ukraine, Syria, Palestinians), and is lowering outcomes for groups _inside_ the US.

I think the current administration's actions are backed by the desire to kick out all immigrants, build a fortress wall around the US, and I guess wait out the end times.

Us lefties often say the best way to lower immigration rates is make other countries a more desirable place to live. I'm not sure if this has ever been put into practice though.

Regarding China, the European and American financial relationship is the largest in the world. Chinese trade with Europe is tiny. Sounds like that is all about to change.

I'm assuming you're on platforms dominated by Americans and Westerners so you're not seeing it much, but I can assure large portions of the world are quite happy to see America's downfall in real-time.

Personally, I hope to see China fill the void America will leave behind; the world will be better for it.

I think a more likely outcome is nobody filling the hole America leaves behind, and the incentives of a multipolar world are much more brutal then that of a unipolar world, as a result I expect a rise of new nuclear armed states.

I think they are brutal for America in particular, but not so much for the developing world. Happy to be wrong about this.

But I do believe that is why Americans are so frightened of a multipolar world (or really, any world where the US isn't the singular superpower).

No not at all. The vast majority of Americans are uninterested in being world policemen when it means it's mainly American boys (and girls, but mostly boys, let's be real) dying in foreign wars.

The Chinese are not stupid enough to send their kids to die in war, and even if they were, they at least have an excess of young males.

I'm not sure how whatever the vast majority of Americans are interested in has anything to do with my point, but...

> The Chinese are not stupid enough to send their kids to die in war

I see you already understand why China would be a better world leader than America!

Everyone's going to get what they want.

This is what Russia does when it buys off politicians. Brexit for the UK, and Trump for the US.

Make no mistake that the Republican party is bought out, through and through, by foreign powers.

What evidence do you have that Trump was "bought" by Russia?

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Please don't cross into personal attack.

I think the Trump family has been bought a lot harder by very wealthy Israel supporting Americans and the UAE. The Kushner stuff is well documented. There's checks moving around. Both parties on each end publicly announce huge real estate deals.

I can't point to anything concrete about Russia funding Trump.

There's a whole Wikipedia article going through some of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_projects_of_Donald_Tr...