In April, one particular meme had taken over the Chinese internet: Don Tzu. A portmanteau of Donald Trump and Sun Tzu, it imagined the 47th President of the United States as a strategic sage whose wisdom had somehow escaped both grammar and causality. The meme came full of Trumpian aphorisms on “winning”, including gems like “break an enemy blockade by blockading their blockade”, “if you don’t know what you are doing, neither does your enemy”, and “you can't lose if you don't have a goal”. Sun Tzu had written The Art of War. Don Tzu appeared to have written The Art of What Is Happening?
The meme worked because it captured something real about how Trump uses power. He does not practise strategy in the old sense, with doctrine, discipline, patience and a clearly defined end-state. His genius, if one is being generous, lies in turning confusion into leverage. He makes so much noise that everyone else has to interpret it. He announces victory before the battle, during the battle, after the battle and sometimes instead of the battle. In the Trumpian universe, the declaration is not a description of reality. It is an attempt to replace it.
