President Donald Trump wants to build up the U.S. Navy, a move based on 19th and 20th century imperial conflicts, that could help the United States counter China’s aggressive expansion into the Western Pacific if we are imagining we will fight WWII again.
Worse the new, bigger fleet will come too late to save America from a rising China. That’s because Trump’s other initiatives—rejecting foreign alliances, throwing up barriers to global trade and withdrawing from efforts to combat climate change—are creating a power vacuum that China naturally fills.