When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he was confronted with the same formidable opponent who defined much of his first term: China. This time the bet was even higher. The trade deficit with China was established up to around $ 300 billion, while IP protection, currency manipulation and predatory industrial and international development practices remained important problems. And Beijing doubled – arming his control over rare earth minerals, sharpening his grip on semiconductors and exert economic coercion against American allies from Australia to Lithuania.
Against this background, Trump 47 arrested a dual approach. In the event of attack, the administration kept maximum pressure on Beijing, staying firm in negotiating positions and refuses to exchange leverage until real concessions arise. As far as the defense is concerned, it has not only used rates as negotiating chips, but also as engines of industrial revival – keeping track of supply chains, rebuilding the production basis of America and hardening strategic alliances to reduce dependence on China.
These were not simple phone calls. Rates rattles markets. Printing campaigns risked alienating partners. Yet the strategy to hold the line was to play a long game and move forward until the US secured fairer, mutual trade conditions. In a world where semiconductors and rare earths are the new oil, this is about nothing less than American national security.
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I have seen firsthand how high bet these negotiations can be. As I tell in my upcoming book, “A chair at the table”, Chinese officials have long been familiar with psychological tactics, slow-walking reactions through layers of bureaucracy, which hand us last-minute concepts in Chinese-even the removal of chairs when negotiating tables. These are not trivial gestures. They are meant to eliminate, unleash the American team and push them to a compromise.
Under President Donald Trump, the US stands up against his trading partner China. File: The national flags of the United States and China are fluttering in the Fairmont Peace Hotel on 25 April 2024 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Wang Gang/VCG via Getty images)
The Trump reaction was simple but powerful: does not shrink. In Beijing, when she presented a Chinese design that ignored our work, Secretary Steven Mnuchin waved it away and it was insisting that the conversations will continue with the American document. When a chair was removed to show lack of respect, we got it back quietly – without ever giving permission.
That trust – remain the course of the course of pressure – continues today in Trump 47. Rates are sharper, more focused and higher than before; Allied trade agreements (Japan, South Korea, the EU) enable us to concentrate resources on China; And deadlines are expanded when they are useful, but only on our conditions.
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Critics say that rates increase consumer prices. They can do in the short term. But the wider truth is that rates are aids for re -operating stimuli, stimulating investments at home and to ensure that the United States does not remain vulnerable in sectors that are crucial for survival. The rates of Trump 47 are already accelerating investments in domestic chip -hostoles, battery factories and energy infrastructure. They also force hard conversations with allies about the coordination of supply chains – from rare earth processing in Australia to semiconductor alliances with Japan and the Netherlands.
When Beijing armed exports of gallium and graphite, of vital importance for defense and electronics, Trump called on the Defense Production Act and doubled the Indo-Pacific partnerships. The message is clear: America will not be hostage to coercion. Strategic autonomy requires resilience, even if it comes with short -term discomfort.
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How do you stay stable if the bet is so high if the pressure is ruthless? Go aside Hans Morgenthau. For me, the source I found was the timeless wisdom of “Kedushas Levi”, an 18th-century chasidic work by Rabbi Levi Yitzchok from Berditchev.
The “Kedushas Levi” shows that challenges – no matter how overwhelming – are never insurmountable. “If you come across an obstacle that is bigger than you, don’t be anxious or afraid. With simple faith, what you are afraid of, you will not hurt,” says it. That doctrine, following the Talmudic Reality that the good Lord gives tests in relation to the power of a person, gave me calmness when sprinting to translate a Chinese design into a Beijing motorcade, or when they are rejected with civil servants who are determined to block and delay.
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It also teaches that truth, even if it is awkward, has divine weight. When Chinese officials opposed the opening of their financial markets, I pointed to the obvious but often ignored truth: Chinese banks in the US had seen growth with double and triple figures, while American banks in China were even struggling for a few figures. That argument broke through where the attitude was not possible.
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The cover of the new book by Mitchell A. Silk, “A Seat At The Table: An Inside Account of Trump’s Global Economic Revolution.”
Negotiations with China will not be packed at night. But this is just as much a competition as economics. And here the lessons of faith are the most important. Faced with giants, the Jewish tradition learns, you don’t shrink back. You raise your head high, it is on the truth and trust that what it feels impossible can indeed be achieved.
That is how we approached China in Trump 45. That is how we approach China in Trump 47. And that is how America, with faith and steadfastness, can win.
