The Trump-Xi meeting didn’t change much, if anything important, but it does keep the conversation open, and, maybe more technical people can work something more substantial out.
A president meeting a foreign leader at the airport is rare and is a sign of deference and weakness. Xi stood at the top of his airplane steps, while Trump waited at the bottom like a subservient vassal. Probably doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things, but goes along with Trump’s flooding dictators with love and praise while repeatedly violating the rule of law himself.
Despite Trump’s public subservience to China and its leader, and despite backing down at his attempts of major trade war against China, the Trump administration is still pushing back against China in smaller, yet important, and less headline grabbing, ways.
American hegemony suppressed a lot of: war, the desire for radical parties, and terrorism. As Trump over extends the US while at the same time not caring about maintaining world order, we are step by step seeing the chaos that American hegemony was keeping tamped down.
It’s not clear that even Europe will remain at peace without American hegemony. Things could spiral out of control if US leadership continues to crumble.
People want to believe the world will keep going on as it was during US hegemony, but this is a naive hope and it’s more likely that we will see violent or/and tyrannical disasters around the world.
Canadians are pissed at the United States, not just its leader, for Trump’s aggressive, bellicose, and demeaning comments and goals regarding Canada. They are most insulted by Trump’s insults to Canada’s sovereignty and some say that trust in the US will not come back. They plan to boycott American goods, cancel US travel, and flipp US products on store shelves to notify others that these are products from an asshole country. They don’t just blame Trump, they blame the American people, who truly did cause this aggression toward Canada.
Before 9/11, the Bush administration was warned about Al Qaeda, but they dismissed it. 9/11 could have been prevented if defense against terrorism was more of a focus. The previous administration was relatively more focused on it and did stop an attack.
Europe used to trust the United States to store their gold. Due to Trump’s erratic and aggressive behavior and comments, some of them are moving their gold back to Europe.
Iran is hurting from the US blockade, but the Iranian government cares more about staying in power than the welfare of its own people. There is limited internal resistance to the regime, but it’s not clear how or if this will escalate to overthrow it.
The major social media platforms have terrorist algorithms. Type in the right thing, like or comment on the right person, group, or statement, and the algorithm will feed you terrorist propaganda.