A couple of points... -Iran seems to be playing the anti-Trump. Trump makes his negative moves when equity markets are closed (starting the war on Friday night) and tries to do positive things when markets are open (his CBS interview). Iran seems to have taken the weekend off, but as pre-markets open in the US, Iran may ramp up its strikes on energy-related facilities in the Gulf, seeing that $100+ crude sends the US equity markets down. -If I didn't know better, I'd say Trump is trying to Make China Great Again, and maybe even get Xi a Nobel Peace Prize. Owing to Trump's tariff taco-ing, Carney, Merz, Starmer and Macron have all approached China and began negotiating trade deals outside of any US influence, further shifting power away from the US toward China. Now let's see who will attempt---and maybe succeed---in bringing an end to the war. China has good relations with Iran and likely a lot of influence. China may well be able to get Iran to agree to a cease fire. Trump, seeing his war is unpopular and perhaps realizing he got everything wrong, would likely take any deal China arranged (though he will still try to take credit). The world---including the Gulf states---would see reality and see China is becoming the primary positive influence in the world. Saudi Arabia already has pretty good relations with China, having first secretly begun courting China back in the early 1980s with the then-Crown Prince Abdullah, and the UAE also has good relations (having sent China NVIDIA's H200 chip after Trump relaxed export restrictions on the chip in return for a $500,000,000 UAE investment in Trump's family business World Liberty Financial.) US influence is in decline, and the US is being viewed as a bully and a force for negativity, while China will increasingly be viewed as rational and a force for good, even if China has a mixed record. Perception trumps reality.
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