Significance of Trump's Victory
Trump has won the 2024 U.S. presidential election to become the 47th U.S. president. Trump's victory is historical; he is the only American president returning to the White House with a landslide victory after being defeated after his first term. The 2024 presidential election was the costliest ($35B), with the richest individuals vested (Donors) in this election. But Trump won on his 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) slogan, which he introduced in his 2016 presidential bid. MAGA is a great slogan that resonates with Americans, the working class, especially the more conservative population. Thus, Trump's mandate from the 2024 election came from MAGA supporters despite the heavy money contributions coming from the wealthy. Trump does not have the term pressure (to win a second term to prove his worth like every first-term president. Trump now has the advantage of being a learned and experienced president, mandated by a majority of American people to focus on MAGA.
MAGA contains very specific goals (strengthen the American economy to make Americans live better, modernize American infrastructure to be the best} and implies some expectations (retain world leadership and enhance the U.S. prestige in the world arena by 'Making All World Great Again' (MAWGA). The mandate that Americans give to the new president is to achieve not only MAGA but also MAWGA. Therefore, Trump, with his historical victory, has a unique opportunity to focus on MAGA and MAWGA in his 2025-2028 term. On mission, goals, and objectives, MAGA and MAWGA are aligned, correlated, and have some mutual dependency. If Trump is successful with MAGA goals, he might go down in history as a great American President, but if he could initiate the right policies for MAWGA and made headway, he might be remembered as one of the greatest American presidents (compared to President Roosevelt), possibly receiving a mandate to serve another term (with a constitution amendment).
President Trump's victory over Harris in the popular vote (74+M: 70+M) and electoral college (312: 212) also came with most Republicans in the Senate (49R: 47D: 4Ind), House (220R: 212D: 3TBD due to resignation and death) and Governorship (27R: 23D). Thus, Trump has a full mandate and a great support base to accomplish his MAGA driven and MAWGA motivated goals. To achieve MAGA and MAWGA, Trump can take a fresh start away from Biden's poor performance and his first term's mistakes. As suggested by this paper's title, we may analyze what chips the Trump Administration has to launch programs and policies to accomplish MAGA and MAWGA goals. As a successful and experienced business executive, Trump is used to counting his chips and making his bids, decisions, and actions. In the following, we will make an organic-view analysis of what chips the Trump Administration may have to deal with domestic issues and foreign affairs to achieve the above twin goals.
The MAGA movement
MAGA has spoken and given Trump a landslide victory. Trump must cherish the MAGA spirit to unite the country to work towards MAGA goals. Trump learned a lot from his first term from 2016 to 2020 in the White House, as shown by his deeds. In Biden's four years from 2020 to 2024, we can see the failures in his Administration both on domestic programs and foreign policies. (Note: some were inherited from Trump's term, such as tariffs and sanctions.) Eight years seem to be short and fast, but the world has changed drastically. The major powers all changed, and most significantly, China made great progress despite the anti-China policy launched by the U.S. with its allies. The U.S. is now facing the challenge of MAGA while the world is in disarray, and very much needed repair with the MAWGA plan. The anti-China policy was based on an obsolete ideological thesis that never would have worked. The U.S. must adopt a fresh win-win China policy that can help the U.S. win MAGA and collaborate with China to win MAWGA.
The U.S.-China relation is the most critical international relation for the U.S. The legacy view that the U.S. must suppress anyone who is challenging the U.S.’s supremacy position is obsolete. Although the U.S. is still the number one military power in the world, China has risen not only with strong defense capabilities in its Army, Navy, Air, and Missile Forces, but it has also advanced in space/satellite technologies, allowing China to have its independent global position system, Beidou, superior communication networks, 5G and 6G, high-speed rail infrastructure, efficient electricity grid system, and supersonic intercontinental missiles. Biden's 'alliance strategy' (AUKUS, QUAD+, NATO+, etc.) could not deter nor win China for sure. China was never aggressive in the first place, the Cold War mentality of fighting Russia and China only led to a world disaster today. (EU needs resuscitation, NATO is too expensive to maintain, and luring Russia to fight China is a bygone strategy given G8 to G7, BRICS' expansion, and the failure of the Ukraine war.) Russia is too dependent on a peaceful China today to bid on the U.S. or EU's game plan. Hence, the wisest strategy for the Trump Administration is adopting a win-win China policy to help the U.S. win MAGA and MAWGA while China would feel comfortable participating. This is the best strategy to maintain the U.S. as a superpower and a world leader.
The Chips for Achieving MAGA and MAWGA
Trump initiated tariff and trade wars in his first term, but they had been proven ineffective against China in the past two U.S. administrations. Other nations dare not declare a trade war against the U.S., but China, as the number one trading partner of over 130 countries, has strong industrial resiliency, manufacturing power, and economic base to deal with any economic sanctions the U.S. and its Allies applied against her. In fact, in the past eight years, China has advanced faster than any nation in most technology areas, the more sanctions applied against China, the more it becomes self-sufficient. So, the U.S. must wisely count its chips and adopt a win-win China policy to benefit MAGA and MAWGA. Trump Administration does have some chips to use to win MAGA and MAWGA by dealing and collaborating with China. We list them below:
A. Taiwan Chip: Yes, Taiwan is a no-cost usable chip for the U.S. to develop a win-win China policy. The U.S. wisely maintained a fuzzy Taiwan policy in the past seven decades. The economic development cycles of Taiwan and Mainland China staggered in time. China started decades late but eventually overtook Taiwan in GDP growth. China wisely wanted to reunite with Taiwan peacefully, but the minority pro-independence party (DPP) currently in power is seeking U.S. (Biden's Adm) military support. The U.S. should not engage in such a risky conflict; rather, it could take a position to help Mainland and Taiwan to reunite peacefully in exchange for a beneficial partnership with Mainland and Taiwan in technologies, manufacturing, and investment to help MAGA and MAWGA.
B. Japan and S Korea Chip: Japan and S. Korea have trade dependencies on the U.S. and China. Biden’s alliance strategy to sanction China basically failed, making Japan and S. Korea nervous about maintaining relations with China and the U.S. By resetting the objectives, Trump's Administration can build a new QUAD (Japan, S Korea, China, and the U.S.) for cooperation in trade, climate, energy or any other domain to help achieve MAGA and MAWGA goals.
C. NATO and EU Chip: The negative impact of misusing these chips with the Cold War mentality by the Biden Administration was clearly seen. Trump has an opportunity to propose peace plans to settle the Ukraine-Russia war and Israel-Hamas conflict to save money from the Cold War tactics and apply to MAGA and MAWGA projects.
D. U.S. infrastructure development Chip: This domestic program is a key element for MAGA. Trump can invite China to participate in the U.S. infrastructure upgrade programs and offer to be a partner in China's BRI – a win-win strategy. The U.S. would save money and gain efficiency in achieving MAGA, China would be happy for the job opportunity, and the U.S. can have a significant role in the global BRI program, particularly in North and South America, to create win-win opportunities helpful for MAWGA and gaining world prestige.
E. Advanced Technology Chip: Turning fierce competition into collaboration is key to success. Advanced technology development depends on people’s talent and capital. The U.S. can leverage what it has to collaborate with China, for example, in Medical and health sciences and space exploration.
F. Negative Chips: In adopting a win-win China policy, Trump must avoid some 'negative' chips, such as (1) Biden's Alliance Strategy, which is costly and harms MAGA and MAWGA. (2) Biden's identity politics, which divides the nation. (3) Hawks on China appearing on its not-welcome list, ex. Pompeo, Rubio, Pelosi, ... (4) Sanction and extreme tariff on electric cars. A careful study must be made before making policy decisions since this industry is a critical one for MAGA and MAWGA.
In conclusion, the Trump Administration has a great chance to set the right policies and use the right chips to accomplish MAGA and MAWGA in the 47th U.S. Presidency!
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