President Trump is heading into a face-to-face with Xi Jinping at the APEC summit later this month with the kind of steel and strategy America has needed for years. Heritage Foundation senior advisor Michael Pillsbury and former Bush national security official Michael Allen told Fox News Sunday that the president’s approach is “very carefully calibrated,” and patriotic Americans should be relieved to hear it. This isn’t the photo-op diplomacy of the past — it’s hard-nosed statecraft built on leverage, not kowtowing.
Beijing’s recent expansion of export controls on rare earth minerals proved again that China plays hardball to manipulate global supply chains and hurt American industry. Trump correctly answered that threat with the language and posture of someone willing to use real economic pain — including a threat of 100 percent tariffs if China doesn’t come to the table. Let that sink in: for once, our leaders are talking about consequences that actually matter to Beijing, not flattering it with platitudes.
Pillsbury and Allen were right to stress calibration: this is not reckless bravado, it’s strategic pressure designed to produce concrete results for American workers and manufacturers. The president understands that you don’t win these fights by apologizing or lecturing; you win by putting pain on the table and then trading relief for meaningful commitments. That’s common-sense negotiating — the kind of common-sense Washington has traded away for decades.
Contrast that with the timid, trade-hugging approach of past administrations that let China hollow out our manufacturing and weaponize critical supply chains. Conservative taxpayers watched their livelihoods erode while elites in both parties made excuses. Trump’s insistence on reciprocity, tariffs, and fair play is not some radical experiment — it’s the restoration of sovereignty and economic sanity.
National security is inseparable from trade policy, and the rare earths showdown proves the point: strategic minerals and advanced technologies are the backbone of defense and industry. If Washington truly wants to deter aggression and protect American jobs, it must back a negotiating stance that couples tariffs with export controls and firm red lines. Weakness invites aggression; strength forces compromise.
Now is the time for Republicans in Congress and Americans across the country to rally behind a strong, clear policy that puts America first. We should support the president as he presses for deals that favor American workers, not globalist trade that leaves us vulnerable. Anything less is betrayal of the men and women who build this country.
Patriots know that a secure, prosperous America depends on leaders who bargain from strength, not those who bow and beg for fleeting smiles from authoritarian regimes. This meeting with Xi is a test of whether Washington has finally learned the lesson of the last two decades: respect is earned, not granted, and America must never again sit quietly while others steal our industry and threaten our security.
