Is Trump Intentinally Tanking The U.S. Economy (Because He Thinks He's The "Chosen One" To Confront China)?

   Any or all of this could be true so far as I know--except for the crucial part about how he's intentionally tanking the economy. That only explicitly shows up in the last paragraph, turning this more-or-less into another entry in the Trump isn't merely incompetent, nor merely bad, but evil genre. Trump actively aims to harm the country? That's ridiculous. And it's a somewhat interesting, if superficial, piece if you ignore that bit.

   As is so often the case, I have no right to an opinion on this, but prima facie I'd think that we'd be in a weaker position than the ChiComs for the same reason democracies always, in a certain respect, are: their leadership doesn't have to be very responsive to public opinion. It'd seem to be a lot easier for them to say, roughly, We're going to put up with severe short-term pain in order to gain a long-term payoff. Trump can't really afford to do that.