At Tablet, Lee Smith writes an important article with an improbable title, “The Thirty Tyrants.” If you can get past the irrelevant classicism of a precedent in Ancient Greece, Smith makes an important point about what Trump represented and the motives of those who opposed him.
His basic point is that the American elites which oppose Trump are making huge fortunes dealing with China, regardless of the negative impact that has on most people here at home. Trump recognized this and sided with Americans, against China, which threatened the elite’s access to further wealth. Presto, longtime big business Republicans became Democrats, as if by magic.
Smith concludes what Trump called “the Swamp” is de facto China’s fifth column in the U.S. These are key people whose loyalty the CCP has bought with market access or cheap manufacturing labor. Their residence may be America but their rallying cry is “Globalism” and their sponsor is Beijing.
—————
The new issue of Time has another insight which buttresses this argument. Author Molly Ball argues that what Smith calls the pro-China lobby was colluding behind-the-scenes to ensure Trump lost his November reelection bid. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for both links.
