President Trump, keep your agenda intact

President Trump should not be giving oxygen to the CCP rather than to his allies and partners.

- M.D. NALAPAT

Ever since he took over as the US President on January 20, Donald Trump has seemed in a rush to operationalise his agenda. In the process, errors have been made. Slower and better may be a wiser course to follow. The Wall Street Journal just carried an op-ed by one of the foremost thinkers in the US, Walter Russel Mead, on how India is being (certainly inadvertently) alienated by the Trump administration. The US President has surprised partners such as Japan and India by making what seems to be a mating call to CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. The response from the other side has been a frigid silence. Xi regards Trump as an adversary to be bested, and honeyed words will not dampen such a perception. Such an approach to the PRC has made several in Asia wonder if the US under Trump would stand by them in the event of a showdown, perhaps even kinetic, with China. The list includes ASEAN, a very significant group of countries that are directly in the sights of CCP expansionism. Trump during his campaign and now as President seem polar opposites. During his campaign, Trump had signalled the danger posed to democracies such as Taiwan by China. Now, doubts are growing as to whether the US can be a reliable partner in case the sovereignty of that country comes under attack from China, as Defense Secretary Hegseth has correctly stated it might, and as early as 2027. Rather than the opposite, President Trump should not be giving oxygen to the CCP rather than to his allies and partners. Polling data suggest a consistent fall in his popularity since early into his second term in the White House. Almost every other day, the White House announces an achievement that seems invisible to those on the outside of that citadel of US executive power. A trade deal with China was announced, to silence from the ot