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Alex Lo

Elon Musk, who described himself as Donald Trump’s “First Buddy”, had a very public clash with “First Brain” Peter Navarro.
The founder of Tesla, whose market cap has crashed along with Musk’s personal reputation, last month took to social media to call Navarro “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”.
Given Musk’s own highly destructive sackings, downsizing and cancelling of key departments within the US federal government under his Doge, or Department of Government Efficiency, drive for productivity and cost-cuttings, it’s not clear the same cannot be said about him.
Once widely admired as the world’s richest man and a tech visionary, he is now disliked or despised by more than half of Americans, according to numerous polls.
But he is probably not far off the mark about Navarro. If Musk represents the slash-and-burn version of Trump’s domestic policy, Navarro stands for that version of Trump’s foreign trade policy.

Certainly “brain” is not the word that immediately comes to mind when describing arguably the most influential economic adviser within the Trump White House.
Still, Navarro is the main idea man behind Trump’s sweeping tariffs against friends and foes alike. They were supposedly designed to rebalance global trade, isolate China, and bring manufacturing back to American shores. But in less than 100 days, they seemed to have backfired and achieved the opposite in every one of them.
As David Frum, speech-writer for former US president George W. Bush, recently put it, instead of “America first, it’s America alone”.
Many of Trump’s punitive trade measures and high headline tariff rates have to be rolled back to reverse some of the terrible damage done to global trust in the American dollar, and the stock and Treasury markets.
For many Americans and foreigners alike, “Trumpism” now stands as disruption without a plan.
So while Trump’s appeal or “Trumpism” has had wide anti-establishment appeal for politicians in some parts of the world, especially during the Joe Biden presidency, more people nowadays are alarmed by his brand of populism that is more bombast than genuine reform policy programmes.
That broadly explains the electoral outcomes in Australia, Singapore and Canada in the past few weeks. All three countries’ election winners and their political parties have much to thank Trump for.
Australia’s incumbent prime minister, Anthony Albanese, of the Labor Party, scored a landslide victory over the Liberal Party, the opposition led by policeman-turned-politician Peter Dutton, who shared Trump’s “anti-woke” agenda as well as his administration’s open hostility towards China.
Against the Trumpian scaling-back of the federal government, Albanese is committed to what pundits call “spendathon”, his pledges to boost public spending from childcare and public health to education and vocational training, along with myriad rebates and subsidies for ordinary citizens.
He now has a convincing majority mandate to stand up to Washington’s trade war and military agenda in the Asia-Pacific as well as pursuing a more balanced position between pursuing fairer trade with China – Australia’s biggest economic partner – while boosting defence against it.
Against Washington’s pressure, Canberra may want to lay off Southeast Asia so China can ease off on encroaching on the South Pacific, Australia’s real security zone.
In Singapore, incumbent Lawrence Wong led the People’s Action Party – the party of the nation’s founder Lee Kuan Yew – to its 16th consecutive election win while widening its share of the popular vote.
His message to the trade-dependent island state – a friend to all, enemy to none – was aimed at Washington’s pressure on Asean member states to pick a side between China and the US. It clearly resonated with Singaporean voters.
So far, with the exception of the Philippines, all the other Asean members, including Vietnam, have taken more neutral and nuanced stances vis-a-vis both superpowers. The region’s continuing stability and prosperity will depend on this commonly-held diplomatic consensus.
Asian countries will always have to live with a towering China right next door. Contrary to both the liberal and neoconservative warmongers of the “China threat” school in Washington, America can withdraw from the Asia-Pacific without too much loss except pride and face.
But if history is any guide, it would probably not make a clean break without leaving behind a big bloody mess for the locals to clean up for generations to come. Once war-torn Vietnam is the perfect example, a lesson few in this part of the world will ever forget; sadly America never learns.
Meanwhile, after initially lagging far behind in the polls like its counterpart in Australia, Canada’s Liberal Party shot back with an election win that landed just a few seats short of a majority in parliament. The Conservative opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, sounded a bit too much like Trump, and ended up squandering what had been a tremendous lead in the polls.
In the end, Canadians not only picked a proverbially “boring” technocrat who has no political career to speak of; they picked a pre-eminent central banker with zero populist appeal who served both Canada and the UK respectively during the global financial crisis and Brexit.
Canadian voters clearly wanted someone like Mark Carney with the financial expertise to navigate the tariff and trade wars while at the same time dealing with Beijing and Washington.
Wisely, Australians and Canadians have decided against having a Trump mini-me for leader in these dangerous times.


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US-China relations

Shell-shocked voters of US allies choose stability over disruption

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese receives a hug during on election day in Sydney on Saturday. Amid growing alarm about Donald Trump-style populism, recent election winners in Australia, Singapore and Canada have much to thank the US president for. Photo: EPA-EFE

Senior US presidential adviser Peter Navarro (left) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Photo: AFP

Elon Musk calls Trump adviser Peter Navarro ‘dumber than a sack of bricks’ over tariffs

Elon Musk on Tuesday described Peter Navarro, a senior White House trade advisor, as “a moron”. Photo: Reuters

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has described his Musk’s electric vehicle company as “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler”. Photo: AP

Elon Musk to cut back work with Trump and Doge after Tesla sales skid

Elon Musk attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in March. Photo: TNS

A protester waving a US flag drives a toy Tesla Cybertruck past demonstrators gathered for a “Hands Off!” rally against the policies of US President Donald Trump and his adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in Huntington Beach, California, on April 5. Photo: AFP

Musk urged Trump to reverse new tariffs, as Tesla shares drop, Washington Post reports

Elon Musk listens to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Photo: Reuters

Singapore election: what’s to blame for the opposition’s failure to make inroads?

Supporters of the opposition Workers’ Party listening to a speech on Saturday night as preliminary results trickled in. Photo: EPA-EFE

Leader of the Opposition and WP secretary-general Pritam Singh (centre) flanked by party members, including party chair Sylvia Lim (extreme right). Photo: EPA-EFE

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (second from right) waves to supporters of the People’s Action Party after his side secured a decisive win in the election. Photo: Xinhua

Observers say Singaporeans are becoming more discerning about their opposition votes, with the WP brand still the most trusted and familiar on this side of the political spectrum. Photo: Reuters

Singapore’s Lawrence Wong greets supporters. His ruling party could have won votes on the strength of their MPs who have worked the ground, more so than heavyweights who were trotted out, analysts say. Photo: AFP

Singapore Democratic Party members on nomination day. The SDP did not manage to get any of their candidates into parliament. Photo: EPA-EFE

Canada now likely has more latitude to work with China if US tensions persist: analysts

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives at the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council in Ottawa on Tuesday. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Carney during the recent campaign challenged Trump’s criticisms of Canada. Photo: AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots in Canada’s election in Ottawa on Monday. Photo: AFP

Opinion

World Opinion

News

China

Diplomacy

Rather than left or right-leaning political parties, citizens in Singapore, Australia and Canada chose ‘steady hands’ to navigate geopolitical turbulence


Rather than left or right-leaning political parties, citizens in Singapore, Australia and Canada chose ‘steady hands’ to navigate geopolitical turbulence.


Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s China policy

Elon Musk

China-Canada relations

China-Australia relations

United States

Canada

Singapore

Australia

Anthony Albanese

Mark Carney

Lawrence Wong

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

My Take

Shell-shocked voters of US allies choose stability over disruption

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Rather than left or right-leaning political parties, citizens in Singapore, Australia and Canada chose ‘steady hands’ to navigate geopolitical turbulence

Rather than left or right-leaning political parties, citizens in Singapore, Australia and Canada chose ‘steady hands’ to navigate geopolitical turbulence