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Good morning,
Michael Marcagi – Scared to Start: I’ve been jamming out to this song all week. Apparently it was huge on TikTok like a year ago, but now that I’m 40 I am no longer expected to know/care about anything happening on social media. It’s quite liberating, actually, I highly recommend. Anyway, this dude’s got a great voice. Good weekend listening.
Speaking of TikTok, I have a proposal for the White House. Mr. President, if you are listening, and you are serious about staking your legacy on winning a new cold war with China, you must ban TikTok. It flew under the radar over the last week or so, but the Biden deadline and then Trump-imposed extension for China to divest itself from TikTok—or else the app would go dark in the U.S.—came and went without much of a peep. It was widely reported that the White House was in the final stages of a deal with TikTok-parent ByteDance to spin the app out under new US ownership, but then it all went to hell in a handbasket with the tariffs.
It seems unlikely Beijing has any incentive to do a deal now, which puts Trump in the position of either just ignoring his own deadline (and the law, as though that matters at this point) or actually ripping off the Band-Aid and putting this Chinese spy and propaganda app out of its misery in the U.S. I get it, there’s like 100 million Americans using TikTok, he doesn’t want to piss them off, especially the younger voters who have warmed to him. But if we are serious about isolating China, how can you let a social media service owned and operated by the CCP to be installed on every phone in America? Shut it down, Mr. President. The kids will be alright (in fact, they’ll probably thank you, in the same way an addict thanks his family for intervening once he’s clean and sober). And if you need air cover, just ask one of these sycophantic tech bros to build their own version. Isn’t Instagram just a TikTok clone at this point anyway? If we’re going to poison the minds of the next generation of Americans, can we at least require that it be an American company that does the poisoning?
Bit of a digression there, but I’m serious. Trump cannot allow the most popular social/propaganda app to remain owned by the Chinese while he’s trying to carry out this huge global reordering against China. On the ongoing trade war, I think we will look back on these last couple days as the week when reality set in. That brief relief rally in the market lasted exactly one afternoon. The Trump trade—investing in American business—has given way to the ‘Sell America’ trade. U.S. stocks, Treasurys and now the dollar are all plunging. It seems very bad that the market is no longer viewing U.S. bonds or the Almighty Dollar as safe haven assets. There’s a theory that Trump wants the USD to be weaker to make our exports more attractive, but this seems like the administration is trying to have its cake and eat it too. Do you want to make American exports attractive to the rest of the world? Or do you want to intentionally harm the purchasing power of the rest of the world? You can’t do both.
One last thing before we head into the weekend. I’ve heard this from several of you, as well as a good friend of mine with whom I got into a heated tariff-related (and cocktail-lubricated) argument the other night. That by focusing so much on how this is all impacting the stock market, it is somehow elitist. Put aside what these same people would say if any Democrat intentionally crashed the market, that is simply false. More than 60% of Americans are exposed to stocks or mutual funds through IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, etc. It is not true that the market is only reflecting hedge funders or other over-levered Wall Street types losing their shirts. The fact that the S&P is down 15% since Trump came in and not 25% is not the winning political argument you guys think it is.
Why Trump’s War With China is Much Bigger Than Trade
“If the United States will not fight the world’s largest tyranny politically, then inevitably, it will have to fight it economically, and eventually, militarily,” Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng told the U.S. Congress in 2000. What has emerged as a trade war by President Donald Trump with Xi Jinping’s China underlines the much larger struggle for global dominance between the rival powers and the very real possibility of the military conflict for which both sides are now gearing up intensively. Read the full story.
Also happening:
- Deportation decision: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency appeal and ruled that it must facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite a court order barring his removal. The 9-0 decision involves Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, Salvadoran national who had previously secured an immigration court ruling protecting him from deportation due to credible fears of gang-related persecution in his home country. Read more.
- US-Iran nuclear talks: As representatives of the U.S. and Iran prepare to officially explore the possibility of reviving nuclear diplomacy on Saturday, President Donald Trump stands on the precipice of a major step toward his stated vision of peace in the Middle East. Such an achievement would offer the president a long-awaited win in proving his case for a new style of U.S. leadership in a region that has otherwise trended toward growing instability. Read more.
This is a preview of The 1600—Tap here to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
This article was originally published by a www.newsweek.com . Read the Original article here. .