I was playing this whole thing out in my head, and trying to justify the confidence of Trump and pals with such seemingly stupid moves. The only thing I can think of is that they believe that the money they will save (steal) from the government cuts, etc, will make up for the huge losses from the tariffs. And then they would have to believe that their internal AI development is at a point where they can overpower every other nation on earth, and so they don't need those international relations anymore. I mean, technically every single Tesla in the world is a camera for Elon, and a huge percentage of internet traffic goes through US servers.

But then I think, even if they do have all of these advantages, China seems to be catching up pretty quickly, is allied with over 50% of the planet through BRICS, has protected itself from their technological expansion. This is not even including that most other countries in the world will probably want to distance themselves from the US if this keeps up.

Either I'm in denial, or it really is just Trump and Elon are being blinded by their overinflated egos.