According to an exclusive report from Axios, which obtained a presentation circulating inside the Trump White House, officials are bouncing around a proposal to build a nationalized 5G data network that would be owned by the government and licensed to mobile carriers.
Large mobile carriers such as Verizon and AT&T typically build their own networks while smaller carriers rent access from them, but Trump regime officials believe the government should build the next generation network.
There are a number of obvious reasons why this will never happen, such as the fact that we have no money to build things because the GOP just signed away the next decade in their tax cuts (and Congress would never support it anyway), but I want to talk about the regime's state motived for building a network.
The PowerPoint presentation says that the U.S. has to build superfast 5G wireless technology quickly because “China has achieved a dominant position in the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure,” and “China is the dominant malicious actor in the Information Domain.” To illustrate the current state of U.S. wireless networks, the PowerPoint uses a picture of a medieval walled city, compared to a future represented by a photo of lower Manhattan.
Virtually everything Trump has done since taking office has driven the rest of the world toward China.
Immediately after he took office, Trump backed down from his tough rhetoric on Taiwan which the Chinese rewarded him for by granting the Trump Organization dozens of trademarks for his products. Trump also unilaterally withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), giving dozens of pacific and oceanic countries no reason not to sign a deal with China. Trump has also withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, ceding ground to China in the race for dominance in the clean energy economy. And Trump's bellicose rhetoric about North Korea has made China look like a stable, mediating force. Trump's constant cries of "fake news" and other attacks on the press have also served to legitimize censorship in China.
The GOP tax cuts signed into law by Trump also mean there's no possible way we'll be able to invest in infrastructure or major engineering projects in the manner that China is.
Trump is the best gift China ever could have hoped for.
I'd be remiss not to marvel at Trump officials using images of a wall and Manhattan for illustrative purposes. Trump has called for literally walling off the United States and Republicans tell me people who live in Manhattan aren't "real" Americans.