As the US Steps Out, China Happily Steps In

Putting the richest man in the world, a US citizen yearning for a tax cut extension, massive additional tax cuts and slashed-to-the-bone federal regulations, in charge of a strange non-governmental agency (“Department of Government Efficiency”) aimed at cutting federal expenditures, is begging for overreach and profound conflicts of interest. Calling the CEO of DOGE, suggesting he and his minions have authority to access the most secret files of a number of federal agencies, a “special government employee” does not fix the issue. With a “so sue the government” attitude as DOGE locks out federal employees from their own offices, gloms onto detailed personnel files and applies its own modifications to that agency’s own software. Offers to “buy out” federal employees, in a form letter that looks remarkably similar to the buyout format used by Twitter (now X) after Elon Musk bought the entity, really beg the question: who’s in charge? As a minority party in Congress, Dems cannot even muster enough support to subpoena Musk.

But the more Elon Musk and DOGE slice and dice, the happier the MAGA movement becomes – that minority is running the country and joyfully shutting down as much of the federal “deep state” as Trump and his de facto Co-President Elon Musk can. This isolationist band of MAGA sycophants was taken aback at Trump’s statement that the US would take over Gaza when the war was over to preside over the remaking into a resort strip of beach resorts, cleared of its former residents. But nobody seems to see that as even a remote possibility. Otherwise, MAGA faithful smiled at the inconvenience wrongfully discharged federal employees and their union face if they elected to litigate.

But the constitutional and statutory underpinnings that this wave of federal agency takeovers by DOGE (plus a personal Trump desire for retribution) has most of the rest of the country confused or enraged, especially when the resulting firings or suggested firings (e.g., the FBI) are directly related to FBI agents simply working on assigned cases that DJ Trump viewed as “weaponizing the DOJ.”

DOGE was focusing on shutting down US Agency for International Development (which dispenses soft foreign aid to desperate people fighting starvation, war and/or disease), and making sure that USAID employees never return. Add to that the Department of Education plus a serious destaffing of the CIA, even if names of CIA operatives were somehow compromised. The above poster and many like it produced tens of thousands (probably a lot more) of anti-Musk, anti-DOGE protestors in state capitals across the land.

The lawsuits filed and to be filed often track this strategy enunciated by Michael Hiltzik in the February 6th Los Angeles Times: “Here’s a phrase — three words, only eight syllables in all — that’s going to gain paramount importance in the conduct of government policy by Donald Trump over the next few years… The phrase is ‘arbitrary and capricious.’ It’s a guidepost for federal judges hearing challenges to agency rulemakings — whether by promulgating new rules or trying to overturn old ones. The terms are embedded in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, which spells out the steps government agencies must take to immunize their rules from legal challenges.

“Trump has tried to evade those steps by purporting to rescind rules and regulations via executive orders, including 26 he issued on Inauguration Day, or via administrative ukases [an imperial decree]. That won’t do, says Peter M. Shane, an expert in constitutional and administrative law at NYU law school.”

But the aspect of DOGE/Trump policies that is doing away USAID to impoverished and desperate peoples the world over is that not only is this entire effort contrary to the “America First” mantra but that it is rife with (unproven) waste and corruption. It doesn’t help that food producing red states will watch their farmers lose billions of dollars of food purchases, but there is another nasty Musk aspect to this volatile mix that I have noted before. Literally, half of Tesla’s output of vehicles worldwide come from Gigafactory Shanghai: Located in Shanghai, China, this factory produces the Model 3 and Model Y for the Chinese and surrounding markets. Since this plant does not export to the US, there are no tariff issues, but China is quite ready to punish the US for other tariffs on Chinese goods.

So, China – joining with other nations in creating reserve currency, sanction and trade exchange workarounds to avoid US influence – needs allies to implement this goal. With their “boy” in Trumpland, Elon Musk, Beijing has a very serious power over the Trump administration. China’s centralized government, brutal when citizens protest, can weather economic hardship created by US tariffs. But as the United States pulls back USAID soft support around the world, China is most ready to step in… smiling and friendly. As Kate Linthicum and Stephanie Yang, writing for the February 5th Los Angeles Times tell us:

“Over the last two decades, China has begun to challenge longtime U.S. hegemony in Latin America. In at least six countries — Panama, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia — it has surged ahead of the United States as the biggest trading partner… Now experts say China has been handed another opportunity in its quest to dominate the region: the presidency of Donald Trump.

“In his first two weeks in office, Trump has strong-armed American allies, using the threat of tariffs to extract concessions from Colombia and then Mexico. At the same time, he has halted — and threatened to eliminate — many U.S. foreign assistance programs that have been a lifeline for developing nations… Suddenly, China may seem like a more stable partner for many countries.

“‘The U.S. is now more unpredictable and bizarre than ever,’ said Carol Wise, a political science professor at USC and expert on the relationship between China and Latin America. ‘The Trump administration has been very hostile to the region, and China has never shown that kind of hostility, ever.’” I wonder how our national security interests, part of “America First,” are served by these DOGE/Trump policies… and how Americans would feel if 1. Those workarounds begin to gel and 2. One of more Chinese naval bases (or air stations) begin to be constructed in Latin America. I wonder what  has to say about this?

I’m Peter Dekom, and as fearful Republicans in Congress bite the bullet and remain silent at this coarse violation of constitutional restrictions and very specific federal employment statutes, as MAGA stalwarts revel in great unraveling, I suspect they are happy even as most of Trump’s kitchen table pledges to America just will not happen.