Trump’s Remaking of America

Michael Chugani June 11, 2025 11:09

America is at war. It is a weaponless war on three fronts - a war with itself, a trade war with the world, and a Cold War with China. There will be no winners. The outcomes can only be measured by which side loses the most.

The US-led West won the last Cold War with the Russian-led former Soviet Union. But that war between capitalism and communism, which began after World War II and ended in 1991, was fought between a prosperous democratic West and a communist bloc plagued by a state-controlled economy, corruption, a crippling arms race, and food shortages.

The late Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's last leader, began openness in the mid-1980s by pursuing democratic and economic reforms. This spurred independence movements by Russia's satellite states that eventually led to the Soviet Union's collapse.

Today's China is not like the Soviet Union. High-level corruption does exist. The Communist Party controls state-owned enterprises. It has great influence over private firms. But China is an economic, military, and space powerhouse plugged into the global economy.

Its population is mostly patriotic and proud of the country's rise. Dissent against the Communist Party - there have been some - are quickly suppressed. China's unspoken ambition is to diminish America's global dominance.

The last Cold War was dominated by geopolitical competition, ideological differences, and an arms race centered mostly on nuclear weapons. The new Cold War is still about ideological differences and geopolitical competition, particularly in the Indo Pacific. But AI domination and weaponized AI are the key features.

This Cold War is essentially between the US and China. Some believe whichever side dominates AI will win. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the country that leads in AI will rule the world. The AI race between the US and China is so close that I cannot see one side dominating the other.

The nightmare is each side trying to outdo the other in weaponizing AI. Nuclear mutual destruction prevented the first Cold War from becoming a hot war. The world saw the horror of such weapons when America dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan in 1945, which ended World War II.

It can only be imagined what destruction an all-out war with AI weapons, known as Automated Weapons System (AWS), will cause since the world has not seen it in the same way it saw America’s use of nuclear bombs against Japan.

A Georgetown University article I read said an AWS can operate on its own without humans once a target is selected. Imagine the destruction if an AWS is fitted with nuclear weapons. Several treaties and international agreements limit the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Russia, the US, and China have the largest nuclear stockpiles. But no such agreements exist for AWS.

US President Donald Trump’s global tariff war is targeted at what he described as unfair trade, especially by China which enjoys a huge trade surplus with America. The US has trade deficits with many counties, which Trump insists is unfair. He has a point, but trade experts warn tariff wars are not winnable.

Trump’s opening salvo imposed such steep tariffs globally that the US stock market crashed. Importers warned of rising consumer prices. Trump backed off by lowering tariffs. His bite has become bark, with the US negotiating with China and other countries.

The problem is Americans are big buyers of foreign-made consumer items such as mobile phones, toys, and TVs. Trump wants manufacturing to make a comeback, but US labor costs are too high nowadays for a large-scale return. Tariff talks will, at best, produce fairer trade in some areas but will not substantially reduce the US deficit with countries such as China.

The US-China trade war has, in a way, spilled into the US-China Cold War. Trump has blocked sales of critical technologies, including advanced computer chips, semiconductors, and aviation parts to China to slow its technological advance. It was in response to China’s export restrictions of critical minerals essential to maintain America’s edge in military technology.

America's war with itself has roots in Trump’s first term as president, during which he sharply divided the country with his policies. He is using his second term to ram through even more divisive policies that are making Americans turn against each other like never before.

During my time as a journalist in Washington DC, Republicans and Democrats often found ways to compromise on key political issues. But they despise each other in today's America. Liberals and Conservatives likewise despise each other.

Opponents of Trump’s policies are mounting legal challenges almost daily. California is now legally challenging Trump for sending the National Guard to deal with protests in Los Angeles against deporting undocumented immigrants.

The norm is for a state governor to request the use of the National Guard during emergencies, not for a president to unilaterally deploy such troops. California’s officials insist the protests were largely peaceful and local police could handle small outbreaks of violence. But Trump decided to ignore California’s Democratic governor by sending in National Guards.

This bitter divisiveness feels like a civil war fought with political hatred. I have never seen anything like it during my many years in the US. It is a lose-lose war that depresses me as an American.

Michael Chugani

A Hong Kong-born American citizen who has worked for many years as a journalist in Hong Kong, the USA and London.