It has amazed me how incredibly stupid Trump’s critics have been.
This is especially true when it comes to understanding Trump’s foreign policy strategy, which is not that difficult to understand if you get past your obsession with wanting to be liked by the Very Best People™ in the transnationalist camp.
There is so much wrong with how the media, the diplomatic types, and the NATO-obsessed analyze Trump’s America-first approach. They see in it an irrational xenophobia or a misguided “Fortress America” attitude, when in fact Trump is pursuing a policy of reestablishing the United States as the sole superpower with the ability to hold our enemies at bay should we so have to.
We spoke to diplomats, advisers, scholars, experts and current and former officials in China. Almost all of them see the war in Iran as a grave American error. Register for free to read why: https://t.co/0CDHuDCMDW pic.twitter.com/KCTtaPO1Kf
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 1, 2026
It’s striking how many pundits are arguing that China will come out of the Iran war a big winner, and they point to things like Spain’s cozying up to the Chinese Communists, or our NATO allies talking openly of building strategic relationships with the communists, as if China can replace the United States as a reliable ally.
Eyes on 👀
Hegseth just hosted Indonesian counterpart and announced a “Major Defense Cooperation Partnership”.
The Strait of Hormuz is 2nd highest volume oil chokepoint on Earth.
What’s the 1st? The Strait of Malacca, INDONESIA (80% of China’s oil imports pass through here).… https://t.co/PQAzjdZzE5 pic.twitter.com/vbZwXpvzkB
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) April 13, 2026
Eyes on 👀
Hegseth just hosted Indonesian counterpart and announced a “Major Defense Cooperation Partnership”.
The Strait of Hormuz is 2nd highest volume oil chokepoint on Earth.
What’s the 1st? The Strait of Malacca, INDONESIA (80% of China’s oil imports pass through here).
Global oil shipping chokepoints are being secured by the US MIL and their partners. Trump is securing the board!
It’s happening.
They say this, all while missing the strategy behind Trump’s policies. Trump isn’t trying to make friends. For that matter, why would he want to be close friends and allies of the EU, which has been hostile to the United States for quite a while, and is incapable of defending itself? Given Europe’s economic sclerosis and continued insistence on hobbling its economy with Net Zero policies, it is easy to imagine the EU collapsing or contracting in the next decade or so.
Energy.
Sea Lines of Communication.Panama Canal
Venezuela
Strait of Hormuz
Iran
Straits of Malacca
Indonesia
South China Sea
Strait of TaiwanYou guys starting to figure it out yet?
🇺🇸 https://t.co/o07Gq3Yhxo pic.twitter.com/R5DsUmpn8W— Tom Sauer (@thomasbsauer) April 14, 2026
Trump is shoring up alliances in Asia, now the center of gravity of the world economy, and gaining control of the major strategic chokepoints of world trade, especially in energy. For decades, the United States has been the guarantor of the security of sea lines of communication, but Trump is showing—both diplomatically, through new alliances—and practically—blockading Iran—that the US can turn off trade as easily as it can guarantee it.
Liberals may fantasize that renewable energy is the key to energy independence, but that is self-delusion. And a self-delusion that China certainly doesn’t share. Everybody is learning a lesson in hard power; some are just slow learners.
Something must be in the water, beer, or wine in Europe. They actually believe they still matter.
وزير الخارجية السنغافوري في افادة برلمانية اليوم حول فرص التفاوض مع ايران لتمرير سفن سنغافورة من مضيق هرمز .. قال
١. لن نفاوض الايرانيين ولن نكون جزء من تطبيع ممارسة مخالفة قانون البحار واتفاقيته UNCLOS
٢. سنغافورة تطل على مضيق عرضه (ميلين بحريين) بينما عرض ممر المرور في مضيق… pic.twitter.com/PP6D5z0vQ8— Omar Ghanim (PhD – Int. Policies) (@DrOmarGhanim) April 12, 2026
Translated from Arabic
Singapore’s Foreign Minister, in a parliamentary statement today regarding opportunities for negotiations with Iran to allow Singaporean ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, said:
1. We will not negotiate with the Iranians, nor will we be part of normalizing a practice that violates the Law of the Sea and the UNCLOS Convention.
2. Singapore overlooks a strait that is (two nautical miles) wide, while the width of the passage in the Strait of Hormuz is (21 nautical miles), and yet Singapore has never considered seizing this opportunity to violate international law.
3. I will not negotiate with the Iranian Foreign Minister, as we are at a moment of affirming the international law of the sea, in the face of an absurd situation that would set a precedent leading to numerous consequences that would not leave international trade in a good position. (He concludes)
When there are statesmen ranked number (1) in every global index for good governance… the logic of state management becomes evident… but when we have gangland experts ruling a state like the current Iranian regime, where a person there fires a bullet into the air… we must expect nothing but the logic of piracy and banditry.
Indonesia. Singapore. Taiwan. Japan. Panama. The Gulf Cooperation Council.
In the 21st century, these are the allies you want. Europe is declining.
Would life be better with good relations with Europe? Of course it would. But not at the expense of our ability to control the seas.
Again, China understands this, which is why they are building a huge navy. But its ability to usefully project power outside its modest sphere of influence is not exactly great.
Britain ran a world empire without much of an army. It controlled the seas, and hence world trade. The United States has a massive Army, a massive Navy, a massive Air Force, and the Marines. Our Coast Guard rivals some countries’ navies.
If you counted our various military branches as separate air forces and compared them to other countries, the United States armed forces would take up four of the top five air forces in the world.
And nobody does combined arms warfare better than the United States.
Trump obviously believes in hard power, and disdains the soft power advocates. Instead of winning hearts and minds, he grabs his adversaries by the short hairs and squeezes.
It’s a powerful attention grabber.
Our adversaries have been working hard to pry control over the world economy for some time. China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, its’ investments in Venezuela and Panama, and its military buildup in the South China Sea. Europe has been using soft power and EU regulation to hobble us, and interferes in our domestic politics far more than Russia or China.
Trump has decided to change the game. Show them who is boss. He did it with tariffs. He’s doing it with browbeating NATO, and he is showing it in the strategic straits that control world trade.
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