I’m deeply troubled and conflicted about it myself. How about doing me a favour and finding a political commentator, Chinese or otherwise, who has even half my ability to predict the future, with a documented track record to prove it? Wouldn’t that cure my narcissism once and for all? Please, I’m begging you!
What do readers come to me for? Political commentary, not lessons in personal virtue! If they’re getting the most accurate political analysis in the world, isn’t that enough for them? However narcissistic I may be, am I anywhere near as narcissistic as Trump?
Aren’t you tired in being a self-appointed morality police?
The best response would be for NATO to remain on the defensive outside Ukraine—shooting down Russian drones and missiles and repelling any Russian ground incursions—while going on the offensive in Ukraine by dramatically increasing both the quantity and quality of military assistance to Ukrainian forces.
If Putin’s attacks on NATO became sufficiently intense, NATO could directly deploy combat aircraft, and potentially even ground forces, to fight in Ukraine.
At that point, the question in the Ukraine war would no longer be whether Russian advances could be stopped. It would become a question of how long Ukraine would need to recover all of its occupied territory. Once Ukraine had recovered all of its lost territory, Putin’s incentive to provoke NATO would disappear.
About a month later, on September 24, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte put forward a strategy for countering Russian provocations that was exactly the same as mine:
NATO will remain a defensive alliance, will not strike first, and will defend every inch of NATO territory.
For every hybrid attack or similar provocation by Russia, NATO should respond by increasing financial and military assistance to Ukraine.
On October 13, 2026, Vladimir Trump had just decided to purchase oil from his boss, Putin, and threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine to pressure it into stopping its strikes on Russian oil refineries.
A certain famous political pundit immediately declared triumphantly, “Lord Trump is furious, and the consequences will be dire! Zelensky, you deserve to be besieged on all sides!"
In my article published that very day, “Vladimir Trump’s Death Throes," I predicted that Ukraine was now only minimally dependent on the United States, while support for Ukraine remained strong across the American political spectrum and throughout Europe. Trump could not simply ignore these pressures. Therefore, Zelensky would not bow to pressure from Trump, the Russian spy. Instead, he would “sit as steady as a rock, smiling as he watched Trump make a clown of himself."
And what happened?
Trump, the Russian spy, did indeed order American intelligence agencies to stop providing Ukraine with missile early-warning intelligence and other information. But faced with an enormous wave of condemnation at home and abroad, he was forced into a humiliating retreat and had to rescind the order. Secretary of State Rubio even had to appear before Congress, grilled lawmakers, and defend Trump.
Rubio has tied his once-promising political future to the doomed, sinking manure barge that is Vladimir Trump. What a pity.
To handle the situation as impeccably as possible, Zelensky suspended strikes on Russian oil refineries for three days. During those three days, however, Russia not only failed to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as Trump had claimed it would, but dramatically intensified its attacks instead.
This demonstrated beyond any doubt that Putin considers Vladimir Trump utterly unworthy of respect.
There can be only two possible explanations:
First: Putin considers Vladimir Trump an idiot.
Second: Vladimir is Putin’s subordinate, the FSB’s prized sleeper agent. Naturally, Putin has no reason to respect him. After all, Vladimir has to obey his orders regardless.
Trump supporters, which one do you think it is?
And so, three days later, Zelensky resumed and intensified strikes against Russia’s critical infrastructure. Thick smoke billowed into the skies over St. Petersburg and Moscow.
My prediction has come true exactly as I said it would.
Donald, the owner of a watermill, was pacing angrily along the riverbank. The dam had burst, the water level in the river had plunged, and his waterwheel stopped turning. His livelihood was gone.
Just then, he spotted a chicken named Zelensky drinking from the river.
Furious, he picked up a wooden stick and charged at the chicken, determined to beat it to death.
“You villain! You’re the one who drained the river dry!"
Over the past few days, I’ve heard Trump repeatedly blame the skyrocketing oil prices on Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Russian oil and gas have long been under international sanctions, and Russia hasn’t been able to sell much to begin with. Less than 5% of the civilised world’s oil comes from Russia.
The real and sole cause of the soaring oil prices is Trump’s Iran war, a war the civilised world neither needed nor wanted. Iran and its little brother has blocked all three major Middle Eastern oil export routes—the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia’s oil pipelines, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Category
Daily exports before the war
Daily exports in September
Reduction
Persian Gulf crude oil
Approx. 18.5 million barrels
13.9 million barrels
Approx. 25%
Middle Eastern refined petroleum products
4.7 million barrels
1.9 million barrels
60%
Middle Eastern liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
1.5 million barrels
670,000 barrels
55%
Anyone with an IQ above 50 can see that Trump’s accusation makes absolutely no sense, can’t they?
Yet he keeps repeating it, day after day.
Why?
Because he knows his supporters will believe him.
He knows his base is a bunch of idiots.
Otherwise, why would he keep insisting that his waterwheel stopped turning because Zelensky the Chicken drank the river dry?
America farmers and working class contributed the bulk of Trump’s votes in the 2024 election. They hoped for better economy and living standard, they got horrific price increases and much harsher livelihood in return:
Expense
Price increase
Diesel—critical for farmers
+80.1%
Petrol (gasoline)
+41.6%
Household natural gas
+9.1%
Car maintenance and repairs
+12.3%
Electricity
+12.0%
Hospital services
+10.6%
Medical services
+5.8%
Rent
+5.2%
Groceries
+4.3%
Kentucky is one of America’s most reliably Republican states. Yet its famous bourbon industry has suffered badly from Trump’s trade confrontation with Canada and Europe.
American whiskey exports fell 19% in 2025, a loss of approximately US$250 million.
Canadian boycotts and European trade uncertainty damaged sales.
Kentucky distillers were left holding inventories exceeding 16 million barrels.
A September 2026 Reuters investigation found that cancelled EV projects announced between January 2025 and August 2026 had promised approximately 27,000 jobs. About 87% of announced EV-related investments were in states Trump won in 2024.
Then Trump’s administration dismantled EV incentives, weakening demand and prompting companies to cancel or postpone factories.
Home builders initially hoped Trump’s administration would lower regulations and make housing construction cheaper.
Instead, his immigration crackdown removed or frightened away substantial numbers of construction workers, while tariffs pushed up material costs.
By October 2026:
Up to two-thirds of surveyed builders reported labour shortages connected to immigration enforcement.
Some locations experienced more than a doubling of framing labour costs.
Construction delays and affordability pressures were worsening.
Rural America strongly supported Trump in 2024. Yet Trump’s major 2025 tax-and-spending legislation included enormous reductions in projected Medicaid funding, a programme on which rural healthcare providers depend heavily.
According to KFF, there is
$137 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending in rural areas over 10 years
$50 billion reduction in rural healthcare funding over 5 years
Trump won Nevada in 2024 descissively. But his trade confrontation with Canada, combined with repeated remarks about annexing the country, helped generate hostility among Canadian tourists.
Las Vegas experienced a significant decline in 2025:
Canadian visitors fell 17.4%, a reduction of approximately 252,400 visitors.
Total Las Vegas visitation declined 7.5%, although other economic factors contributed to that wider decline.
2. Elon Musk
Musk spent approximately US$290 million supporting Trump and Republican causes during the 2024 election.
His close identification with Trump’s politics subsequently alienated prospective Tesla customers.
Tesla’s European sales fell 33% in the first half of 2025.
Trump’s administration eliminated the US$7,500 federal EV purchase tax credit.
When Trump and Musk publicly fell out in June 2025, Tesla lost approximately US$150 billion in market value in one trading day.
3. Qatar
In 2025, Qatar offered Trump a luxurious Boeing 747-8, valued at approximately US$400 million, for use as Air Force One.
Then Trump’s war with Iran devastated Qatar’s energy exports.
Qatar’s government revenue fell 42% in the first half of 2026.
Iranian attacks damaged its Ras Laffan LNG facilities that takes 10 years to fix.
Approximately 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity remained offline in October 2026.
4. Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia lavished extraordinary hospitality on Trump, including ceremonial sword dances by the princes and enormous investment commitments.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hoped to transform Riyadh into a global centre for finance, technology, tourism and international business through Vision 2030.
Then the Iran war spread across the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia’s economy is projected by the IMF to contract 3.3% in 2026.
Houthi missiles struck Riyadh’s airport in October, killing at least 13 people and injuring hundreds.
Saudi Aramco’s headquarters was also targeted.
International travel, foreign investment and confidence in the kingdom’s security have all suffered.
Instead of the Middle East London and Silicon Valley, Riyadh’s image of being a no-go war zone cannot be changed in many years to come.
5. UAE
An investment firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a powerful member of the UAE royal family, agreed to invest US$500 million in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture before Trump returned to office.
The UAE also celebrated Trump’s May 2025 state visit with plans for US$1.4 trillion of investment in America over ten years.
Then came the Iran war.
Iranian attacks struck critical Gulf infrastructure, including the UAE’s Fujairah oil port. The IMF now projects that the UAE economy will contract 3.9% in 2026.
Forbes estimated in February 2026 that the above investment has already lost US$100 million. The UAE investors did not receive a share of future WLFI token-sale revenues, even though those sales were a major source of income for Trump’s family.
Like the Saudis, UAE wanted Dubai to be viewed by the world as a Middle East jewel in the crown, but Trump’s war turned it into a war zone.
6. Pakistan
On 21 June 2025, Pakistan announced that it would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his claimed role in ending a military confrontation with India.
On the very next day, after Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, Pakistan condemned the attacks as violations of international law.
What an irony!
Due to the higher fuel price caused by Trump’s war, Pakistan government had to pay US$700 millions to its citizens as fuel subsidies, and the latest October IMF forecast puts Pakistan’s overall inflation at 7.1% in 2026 and 9.9% in 2027.
But…
There are only one group of people who have gained significant amount of wealth since 2024.
Forbes estimates Trump’s personal fortune has grown by US$2.7 billion.
His son Eric Trump was briefly a billionaire in 2025.
Donald Trump Jr. was estimated to be worth US$500 million.
His youngest son, 20-year-old Barron, amassed an estimated US$150 million, largely through cryptocurrency.
Reuters found that the family’s crypto ventures generated at least US$2.3 billion in profits while more than a million investors lost the same amount. The Trump family simply took this money from the pockets of the million investors who believed in them.
They treated them as ATMs and, in KGB’s terminology, useful idiots.
Let’s see in the mid-term election
But none of this should come as a surprise.
As early as March 2024, eight months before the election, in my article 評論彭斯、切尼的最新表態, and again in January 2025 in 美國開始匈牙利化的第一批信號, I predicted that no matter how much a demagogue like Trump promised you, once in power, he would pursue his own interests, not yours.
Let’s see how these ATMs vote in the coming midterm elections.
I’m not very optimistic.
If they had enough wisdom to wake up today, they probably wouldn’t have voted for a villain who attempted a coup to overturn a legitimate election, committed serious fraud, was a sexual predator and a rapist, and idolised some of the worst figures in human history, such as Putin and Kim Jong-un.
More likely, they will still happily volunteer to help the Trump family count the banknotes they rake in from deals in which these very supporters are sold out.
