Or is Trump doing what Putin tells him to do because Putin does what Xi tells him to do?

That’s sure how it seems like it’s worked out.

Whoa there buddy, you’d better ease up on those pragmatic and reasonable opinions there! That’s far too rational for round these parts. ;)

I think it’s going to be increasingly difficult to not pull your hair out over the next four (at best) years. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when Biden got in, not because I agree with his politics (I’m not American and don’t live there either), but because I was so tired of looking at whatever the orange idiot had done the day before and thinking “why would you do that”?! This time will be worse.

I hate how stressful it is for everyone else in the planet when the world’s largest economy is being run by a toddler

Trump, and a large portion of the US electorate, don’t understand soft power. The idea of propping others up helps yourself; of graciously taking a back seat in one area to strengthen your position in another. It’s fucking infuriating, and it’s going to have ramifications long after Trump joins Kissinger.

Their current argument is “Marx said you have to go through capitalism to get to communism.”

Which somehow doesn’t apply to every Western country. And also somehow their backsliding into capitalism after Mao isn’t relevant.

Anyway, any country with over 800 billionaires is going to let the workers control the means of production any day now.

They love to seize

Wait until the BRICS don’t need western markets anymore

I can’t envision that being a thing in a global economy. It’s like saying wait until they don’t want to make more money.