President Trump's China Showdown : "To boldly go where no man has gone before"

A TRIP AROUND THE CHINA TRADE WAR. Let's start with a last word about Justice Kavanaugh's Apple iPhone opinion. • • • THE SILICON VALLEY MONOPOLIES ARE IN FOR SOME ROUGH SAILING. American Thinker's Chriss Street added some detail to the iPhone story on Thursday. Street writes : "Winter is Coming’ to Silicon Valley monopolists who long ago moved from innovation to mining government regulatory relationships to crush competition and maximize profits....Silicon Valley is often credited with escaping the pain from the Great Recession’s brutal real estate crash and huge unemployment spike, due its ability to innovate with the triple roll-out of the iPhone, social media, and the Internet advertising model. But another huge financial driver for America’s largest technology hub was the return on investment during the Barack Obama’s administration from an 800% increase in annual lobbying expenditures, from $17.8 million in 2008 to $139.5 million in 2016, that seems to have convinced the President and congressional Democrats to embrace Silicon Valley’s business model that directly profited from expanded global trade, offshoring US jobs and importing skilled workers. With regulators ignoring Silicon Valley tech giants offshoring most of their manufacturing operations, the annual US trade balance for advanced technology products sales fell from a $35 billion surplus in 1992 to an $111 billion deficit when Obama left in 2017." • That goes a long way to explaining a portion of the staggering trade deficit that faced President Trump when he took over. Chriss Street notes that Silicon Valley growth is now "tied to market concentration from companies like Alphabet (GOOGL) that has made 120 acquisitions and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) that bought 80 firms. Facebook maintained its 70 percent social media market share by paying $17 billion to buy its top potential competitors, Instagram and WhatsApp." • And, as I wrote in yesterday's blog, antitrust was dormant during this period. Street says : "Nowhere was the Obama administration kinder to powerful corporate elites than in dismantling US antitrust enforcement of the Sherman, Clayton, and Federal Trade Commission Acts. According to FTC data, Obama administration antitrust enforcements were less than in the Bush administration and about one third Clinton fillings." That led to the combined 2016 market value of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (“FAANG stocks”) accounting for "almost $3 trillion in market capitalization. Despite going all in to support a losing 2016 presidential effort by Democrat Hillary Clinton, the FAANG’s market momentum saw their value reach almost $4 trillion in early 2018, or about 11% of the value of all 500 of the most valuable American companies." • But, states Chriss Street : "Trump through 2018 had dismantled $33 billion of the $245 billion in burdensome regulations imposed during the Obama administration. The US Office of Budget and Management reported that the administration eliminated or delayed 2,253 regulatory actions, including ‘Net Neutrality’ and the US Post Office subsidy for Chinese shippers. Although liberal judges have slowed down recension of thousands of other targeted regulations, President Trump is radically reshaping the federal courts by confirming two associate justices of the Supreme Court, 40 judges for the United States Courts of Appeals, and 64 judges for the United States District Courts. The President currently has 57 nominations pending in the US Senate, including three for the Courts of Appeals, 52 for the District Courts, and two for the Court of International Trade." • There is no question that they are monopolies, as Street says, that "probably violate antitrust laws..." • BUT, it is Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, says Chriss Street, "who was crucified by Silicon Valley elites during his Senate confirmation hearings last year," who "just became the swing vote that found Apple’s App Store can now be sued by consumers for antitrust actions. Silicon Valley's corporate Masters of the Universe must feel like great families of Westeros that dreaded 'Winter is Coming' in the Game of Thrones. The ultimate winner of the Iron Throne after eight years of conflict will be declared in Sunday night’s final episode. But a long and painful ‘Winter is Coming” for Silicon Valley." • Looking at the Silicon Valley monopolies or American societal disjointures President Trump is trying to correct, another American Thinker writer, Peter Skurkiss, said on Thursday : "Most of the attention to Donald Trump's MAGA policies focuses on the revitalizing of America's economic base. But through his court appointments at various levels, the President is helping to make America's soul great again, hopefully returning us to normalcy. • • • THE CHINA TRADE DISPUTE HAS BECOME THE LATEST CUDGEL DEMOCRATS USE TO BEAT PRESIDENT TRUMP. We hear it every day -- the mainstream media is gleefully calling President Trump's effort to bring China's rogue commercial crimes under control "a tax," "dangerous," "crippling soybean farmers," "leading to recession," in effect, a disaster undertaken to please his 'base' by a President who is "ignorant" of all things economic -- despite the "Trump Economic Miracle." • Well, on Thursday morning CNBC reported on US housing starts in April -- they rose "more than expected." CNBC said : "US homebuilding increased more than expected in April and activity in the prior month was stronger than initially thought. The data suggested declining mortgage rates were starting to provide some support to the struggling housing market. Housing starts rose 5.7% to 1.235 million units last month, driven by gains in the construction of both single- and multi-family housing units, the Commerce Department said....Data for March was revised up to show homebuilding rising to a pace of 1.168 million units, instead of falling to a rate of 1.139 million units as previously reported....Building permits rose 0.6% to a rate of 1.296 million units in April....Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts would increase to a pace of 1.205 million units in April." CNBC added that : "Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment advanced 4.7% to a rate of 381,000 units last month. Permits for the construction of multi-family homes rebounded 8.9% to a pace of 514,000 units last month....The 30-year fixed mortgage rate has dropped to 4.10% from a peak of about 4.94% in November, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. Decreasing mortgage rates reflect a recent decision by the Federal Reserve to suspend its three-year monetary policy tightening campaign." AND, a survey on Wednesday, said CNBC, "showed confidence among homebuilders rose to a seven-month high in May. While lower borrowing costs are boosting demand, builders said they 'continue to deal with ongoing labor and lot shortages and rising material costs that are holding back supply and harming affordability.” NOT SHABBY for a President who is berated for not being an economic genius. • • • CHINA AND THE US WRANGLING OVER THE COMING 5G INTERNET. TheHill reported on Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is : "...ramping up its battle against Chinese telecom companies as the Trump administration pursues an aggressive trade strategy against China. Analysts say the FCC’s recent action against China Mobile, and its ongoing investigations into two other Chinese telecom giants, could exacerbate tensions between the two countries amid high-stakes trade negotiations. 'If the FCC effectively wages war on Chinese tech companies in general, then that could make the Chinese government sit up and start to take notice,' Matthew Kendall, chief telecoms analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told TheHill." Because the last round of talks with China ended without a deal, the US increased tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing on Monday morning retaliated with tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. imports. Neither side has yet shown any sign of backing down. President Trump tweeted on Monday that “China will be hurt very badly” if the country does not “make a deal” with the US. “You had a great deal, almost completed, & you backed out!” FCC commissioners last Thursday voted 5-0 across party lines to block China Mobile, one of the largest telecom companies in the world, from US markets over alleged national security concerns. And at a press conference after the vote, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the commission is looking into two other Chinese telecom companies -- China Unicom and China Telecom -- both of which have the same authorization that China Mobile USA was seeking : “We must have a clear-eyed view of the threats that we face and be prepared to do what is necessary to counter those threats.” TheHill reported that : "Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr called for a full-blown investigation by national security agencies into China Unicom and China Telecom, saying at the Thursday meeting that 'much, if not all, of the reasoning behind today’s decision appears to apply with equal or greater force to those legacy authorizations.' The application from China Mobile’s US subsidiary, China Mobile USA, had languished at the FCC for eight years. The Delaware-based company first asked for authorization to provide services between the U.S. and other countries in 2011. But the FCC didn’t pick up the matter until last week, as the US and China turned up the heat in their trade talks, a decision that Gordon Smith, the CEO of telecom solutions provider Sagent, said likely was 'not coincidental.'....according to TheHill, "the US has significantly increased its efforts over the past year to push back against Chinese telecom companies as the trade relationship with China deteriorates. Most notably, the Trump administration banned the government from using equipment from Chinese telecom giant Huawei due to concerns about the company’s close ties to the Chinese state....It also comes as the US seeks to get a leg up in its race to implement next-generation wireless services known as 5G ahead of China....'The FCC’s approach to China is based upon protecting the US’s economic interests and, perhaps more importantly, the FCC’s knowledge that were the US to lose control of the ‘Internet of Things’ due to China’s 5G dominance, it would cede significant geopolitical control and stability too,' Bill Lawrence, a wireless telecommunications lawyer at Burr & Forman, told TheHill. • AND, on Thursday, the Trump administration took direct aim at HUAWEI, as reported by CNBC : "President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said. The move, done via executive order, authorized the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in consultation with other top officials, to block transactions that involve information or communications technology that 'poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.' Following the order, the US Department of Commerce announced the addition of Huawei Technologies and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, making it more difficult for the Chinese telecom giant to conduct business with US companies. The addition means that US companies cannot sell or transfer technology to Huawei without a license issued by the BIS. That could make it harder for Huawei to do business, as it depends on some US suppliers for parts." Secretary Wilbur Ross says : "President Trump backed the decision, which will 'prevent American technology from being used by foreign owned entities in ways that potentially undermine US national security or foreign policy interests." In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote that the administration will "protect America from foreign adversaries who are actively and increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology infrastructure and services in the United States." The Trump administration has pushed allies around the world not to adopt Huawei’s next generation 5G network technology, which American officials have warned could be used for spying by the Chinese. Those efforts have had mixed results in Europe, where several countries declined to stop doing business with the company. Huawei has forcefully denied allegations that it is not independent from the Chinese government. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP PROMISES RELIEF FOR FARMERS. Newsmax reported earlier this week that : "President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration was planning to provide about $15 billion in aid to help US farmers whose products may be targeted with tariffs by China amid a deepening trade war. The President told reporters at the White House : "We're going to take the highest year, the biggest purchase that China has ever made with our farmers, which is about $15 billion, and do something reciprocal to our farmers so our farmers can do well." Newsmax said : "American farmers, a key constituency of Trump, have been among the hardest hit in the trade war. Soybeans are the most valuable US farm export, and shipments to China dropped to a 16-year low in 2018, while soybean futures prices last week fell this week to 11-year lows. US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Friday that Trump had asked him to create a plan to help American farmers cope with the heavy impact of the US-China trade war on agriculture. A new aid program would be the second round of assistance for farmers, after the Department of Agriculture's $12 billion plan last year to compensate for lower prices for farm goods and lost sales stemming from trade disputes with China and other nations." President trump told the reporters : "Out of the billions of dollars that we're taking (in in tariffs on Chinese imports), a small portion of that will be going to our farmers, because China will be retaliating, probably to a certain extent, against our farmers." News max reminded us that : "Last year Beijing imposed tariffs on imports of US agricultural goods, including soybeans, grain sorghum and pork as retribution for US levies. Soybean exports to China have plummeted over 90% and sales of US soybeans elsewhere failed to make up for the loss. While farmers have largely remained supportive of Trump, many have called for an imminent end to the trade dispute, which propelled farm debt to the highest levels in decades and worsened credit conditions for the rural economy." • • • WHO WILL WIN THE TRADE WAR? American Thinker's James Mullin took a look at the trade war math on Tuesday : "Watch carefully now as various politicians, pundits, editors, news anchors etc. weigh in on the US-China trade war. You won’t know truly who is on Beijing’s payroll, but it’ll be fun to guess. Watch for surprises and non-surprises (Hi, Senator Feinstein!). Get ready for a barrage of cataclysmic warnings about the US economy and the financial markets. As a scientist, I feel it useful to occasionally engage in facts, and for me, the simpler the better. So, try this scenario : If Country A exports 20X more to Country B than Country B does to Country A, which side do you think has more to lose in a protective tariff war? Could it be the country that exports substantially more? Hmm. Country A in this little exercise is China. Its exports to the US (Country B) dwarf US exports in return. After all, over 40 years, the Chinese swallowed a big gulp of our domestic manufacturing and they’ve been hard at work stealing our technology and intellectual property. If China and the US now install similar tariffs, it is not quantum physics to see that a tariff war will hurt China far more than the US, as the cost of Chinese exports (the major factor in the equation) mushrooms. After all, the three major trading partners / markets of the US are Canada, Mexico, and Europe -- not China. Want to bet the reverse is not true? So as your 401k and IRAs start sinking (for now), rest assured that 'This too shall pass.' In the words of the immortal Admiral Yamamoto, China has 'awakened the Sleeping Giant.' Things will not be the same. Americans finally elected a populist President, and Beijing is just now waking up to that fact. I think the Beijing air quality will be poorer than normal this summer. Oh, by the way – the major American export to China is? Answer : food. Try making that substantially more expensive in the world’s most populous country! Thank you, President Trump! Yet again!" • • • WHY IS PRESIDENT TRUMP SO INSISTENT ON A CHINA TRADE DEAL? BizPac Review reminds us of the history of the "China problem" : "For the last 30 years, China has been manhandling the US on trade, running rampant over the US economy. The imbalance of America pumping trade dollars overseas to countries like China has created huge trade deficits and contributed to the US national debt. It has reached the point where China, not Russia, is the most significant threat to the US, long-term. China’s economic espionage activities, intellectual property theft, and currency manipulation are severe, as they try to replace America as the world’s superpower. Also, China cheats. They ignore patents. Their activities employ illegal, illicit efforts to exploit all routes to power. This includes counterfeiting and stealing America’s military and technological secrets; the FBI has 'economic espionage investigations in all 50 states that trace back to Chinese activity.' We have been taken advantage of, because China rarely plays by fair trade rules." BUT, says BizPac Review : "Almost all the media reporting to date has focused on the negative aspects of a trade 'war' with China, with little or no mention of the potential benefits. Even if benefits don’t exceed the costs, there are times when taking a stand (i.e. fair trade, reciprocity, punishing agreement violators) make the endeavor just and worthwhile. This is especially so because China is trying to muscle the US out of the lead as the dominant world power. This trade issue has been going on for well over 3 decades and it has been lopsided against America. Previous US administrations and Congresses have 'looked the other way' while we were already in a trade war but not defending ourselves. China has been ripping off the US by erecting a big tariff barrier to stop America from trying to sell goods into their country. No matter which route we take, there is danger ahead. Time to try something different, time to draw a line in the sand, and this is what Donald Trump is doing." • BizPac Review says it may be "daring for Trump to stand up to China, but it would be worse if Trump did nothing. America has the most to gain by taking a firmer stance." BPR rattles off the numbers : "China exports $500B/year to the US, the US exports $150B to China - who would tariffs hurt more? The answer is obvious. Trump wants trade between the two countries. But the term 'free trade' is deceiving when the deal is good for the other country and not good for America. China already reneged on its commitments made in earlier negotiations with Trump, now the President is making them pay a price for defaulting on their promises. Since China’s tariffs are significantly higher than ours right now, time to tax them by the same amount. Further, tariffs placed on China help US GDP, as we saw in the 1st quarter of 2019. Trump is legitimately leveling the playing field and his America First doctrine is kicking China’s butt. The President knows that if you are going to take on The Sleeping Dragon, you must do it from a position of strength. And we are stronger than the Chinese. The mainstream media says the President is wrong, but the mood of most of America is to support his trade battle. Jim Cramer of CNBC agrees, stating 'I think that there are a lot of people (who say), ‘Thank you for standing up for us.' Cramer adds, 'Many Americans support President Trump’s trade war with China, but...their voices are being drowned out.' The time is right for Trump to engage China on trade. When Trump is taking heavy flak, that means he’s over the target!" • • • IS THE CHINA TRADE WAR REALLY A 'COLD WAR'? American Thinker's Alexander G. Markovsky wrote on Thursday : "When an article begins with, 'Just about everyone understands...' or 'There can be little doubt...' you know that the author has a weak case. Investors Business Daily’s post, dated May 10th begins just like that : 'Just about everyone else understands that the Trump trade war will be bad for US investors, consumers, retailers and manufacturers. The trade war will hit consumer spending and could freeze business investment in the US. It will damage American business prospects in the world's second largest economy. It will hurt global growth and pressure global financial markets. The longer this takes to sink in, the greater the damage to the U.S. economy.' " • But, Markovsky says 'not so fast' : "While Donald Trump’s critics see the trade war through the prism of a hundred dollar price increase for washers and dryers or impact on the cost of footwear, Trump sees the rise of China as a major economic and geopolitical threat. Trump understands what most economists and Investors Business Daily are missing. In this new world economy, the United States does not have a competitive advantage by virtue of high productivity based on superior organization and advanced technology. Nowadays, if you know what you want and have the money, practically anything can be bought. Project financing is available to anyone anywhere in the world, provided by multilateral lenders and a syndication of investors worldwide. The technologies are available to anyone willing to pay for them, and information is available to anyone with a computer or an iPhone. In this environment, America is in mortal disadvantage with China. If Chinese enterprises employing modern technologies do not have to comply with the US environmental and safety regulations and pay their workers in a day what their American counterparts make in an hour, this country cannot possibly succeed. American industries are under a military-style assault by China that includes, but is not limited to, manipulating currency, dumping, stealing technologies and know-how, and counterfeiting American products. China has become a manufacturing plant for American corporations and profits from the manufactured goods sold on the American market have built the economy rival to the US. The burgeoning wealth allowed China to build modern military capabilities, construct the islands in the South China Sea, threaten Taiwan, and initiate expansion in Africa and Latin America. It is not Russia, with a tiny GDP of about 10% of the US and the population of 150 million, that challenges American interests. China, with its massive economy and military strength, has been acting as a geopolitical adversary during the last few decades. Although vastly outmatched by the US in resources, technology and, above all, military capacity, Chinese have often imposed their own preferences by a nonchalance of psychological pressure against the material advantage of the feeble American administrations. The emergence of Donald Trump inaugurated a new era in America-Chinese relations. Trump is reversing the strategic trend and turning it against China, threatening to regress China’s history for generations. Hence, it is not a trade war -- it’s a cold war. In this cold war, Trump has the upper hand and sees no reason to compromise anything. The United States remains the world-dominant economic power that is enjoying a booming economy." • A COLD WAR. Markovsky explains : "International trade, although very important, is not a key building block of the US economic expansion. For China, on the other hand, international trade is existential. The imposition of tariffs compounded with a lower corporate tax rate in the US forces American companies to move manufacturing out of China. Most of them are expected to come back to the US, although some will relocate to Vietnam or other low labor cost environments. In any event, China is losing, while America is gaining. The longer the negotiations go on, the more companies make a move, and once gone they are not going back. That is exactly Trump’s ultimate objective -- to weaken China by depriving it of revenue. Trump has trapped China in Zugzwang position -- the situation in a chess game where a player has to make a move, although any possible move will only worsen his position. If China does not accept Trump’s demands, the high tariffs would go into effect. Since China’s economy has a limited domestic consumption, losing American market will have a devastating impact. If China does accept Trump’s demands, it would have to pay for American technologies that it currently enjoys via forced transfer or outright theft and, also cease utilizing all the other shenanigans that ensure China competitive advantage." Markovsky quotes Cato the Elder, the Roman senator, who is reputed to finish every speech with a call “Carthago delenda est” -- “Carthage must be destroyed.” Donald Trump, says Markovsky, could paraphrase it as “China must be destroyed.” Trump sees it not just as a case of national dignity and self-respect, but an imperative for our economic survival." [ Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank that examines national security, energy, risk-analysis and other public policy issues.] • • • DEAR READERS, if trade wars are not your ting, bear with President Trump anyway. Ask yourself how long it will take for China to realize that it is no longer dealing with "Santa Claus Uncle Sam" but with the greatest power in the history of the world under a President ready to use that power to stop the bleeding of US jobs and technology to a criminal regime bent on destroying America. When we can get hold of that dynamic, the trade war will be just as President Trump tells us, "there is no reason US consumers should feel the effect of tariffs....There is no reason for the US Consumer to pay the Tariffs, which take effect on China today. This has been proven recently when only 4 points were paid by the US, 21 points by China because China subsidizes product to such a large degree. Also, the Tariffs can be completely avoided if you [buy] from a non-Tariffed Country, or you buy the product inside the USA (the best idea)." MAGA is the message and our President is making it happen. • If you want more proof that President Trump knows exactly what he is doing, consider this -- Monica Showalter reported on American Thinker Wednesday that : "President Trump is soaring among older Millennials, according to a poll from Zogby, of all places. And that unexpected report from the left-leaning pollster just happens to coincide with the nosedive that Trump's socialist challenger, Bernie Sanders, has taken among youth in a separate Morning Consult poll. According to the Daily Mail : 'President Donald Trump's job approval rating surpassed the half way mark in a Zogby Analytics poll published Tuesday. In the poll, Trump earned 51% approval from likely voters and 48% disapproval -- 2% say they are unsure. Among younger millennials, those between 18-29, Trump received 51% approval, but among older millennial voters, those between 25-35-years-old, 53% approval of Trump's job as President.' Hannity, meanwhile, reports this, citing TheHill : 'Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign took another turn for the worse this week, with new surveys showing his support among younger voters -- once a key aspect of his political base -- plummeting just months before voters head to the polls. According to a recent report from Morning Consult, Sanders support among voters aged between 18 and 29 has plunged from 45% to just 33% in May. 'Sanders's support with the youngest voters, who propelled his surprising challenge to then-Democratic contender Hillary Clinton in 2016, has steadily declined in the poll since topping out at 46% in late February,' reports The Hill." Showalter suggests that : "Not too long ago, Vox reported that young people hate Trump. Today, it looks as though Trump is eating Sanders alive. Three years ago, Sanders was a novelty among the young, and Sanders's most impassioned supporters. Today, Bernie is a has-been, an also-ran, a guy who got gulled by the Hillary Clinton Democratic Party machine and didn't complain much about it. Chris Cillizza has noted that the rise of Trump among the young has been going on as a trend, as a matter of fact. Young voters are starting to flock to Trump, and it may well be that it's at Bernie Sanders's expense....anecdotally, this looks a bit like the silent generation asserting itself once again. Back in 1972, with the unpopular Vietnam War going on, the conventional wisdom propounded in the mainstream press held that all the young people would leap to vote for George McGovern for President over Richard Nixon owing to his extensive liberal platform. They didn't. In fact, on election night, oodles of young people were waving their Nixon signs and buttons, proud to stand up and be counted when no lefty could stop them." Showalter adds : "It also seems to resemble the dynamics of the 1980 presidential election that elected the great Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter, which is the one where I cast my first ballot. As a teen in a public high school in San Diego, I recall how the press and the intellectuals running our advanced placement classes tried to foist the green agenda on us and told us that we would have to start accepting 'small is beautiful' as a philosophy, as Jerry Brown said. There would never be jobs for us (though we noticed that the people telling us this were comfortable enough), and our lives were over before life had begun; it had all been used up by those who came before us, so suck it up. There was other blather about the importance of accepting socialism even if it meant we could never reach our potential. In my class, this whole indoctrinated picture seemed to ignite support for Reagan....At the beginning of the semester, our lefty community college instructor asked the class to raise their hands as to whom they wanted for President, and most hands shot up for Carter. By the end of the semester, the ratio had flipped severely, and pretty much everyone among the college-bound seniors said they wanted Reagan....it shifted our prospects to something more to our liking as our bet proved right, and the Reagan jobs boom began after 1982. Young people were the biggest beneficiaries." • Monica Showalter gets it : "One wonders if the same thing might be happening now among the Millennials, especially the older ones who remember the long Obama years and its subpar-growth economy, as well as nonstop propaganda about the wonderfulness of 'going green.' How did these years unfold for young people, with little to offer them, in their defining young work years, which set the tone for one's career? Were they too told there would never be jobs for them? Yes, as a matter of fact they were as President Obama claimed that high growth was a thing of the past. With Trump proving something very different -- and unemployment dropping below 4%, it's pretty obvious they realized they'd been lied to. Did they have enough of Mom's basement? Seems like it. Which would explain why Sanders has become a tiresome bore for them and they are looking for someone new. The youth fascination with the elderly socialist has always been a bit of a mystery, though he is pretty well spoken. Perhaps his money scandals (multiple houses and a private jet after life in public office) have drawn away support, or his failure to fight the Clinton machine, or his socialist schtick has just gotten boring. Whatever the case, Trump is cleaning up as his numbers go up in the polls. That's a thing of beauty and Trump should have fun with it, out on the 2020 campaign trail." • Dr. Spock said it : "To boldly go where no man has gone before." President Trump is doing just that, and we should all be onboard the USS Enterprise.