In a column published September 25 at American Thinker, writer Jack Hellner argues that Democratic complaints about President Trump going soft on China are hard to take seriously, given what he describes as his party’s own long record of accommodation with Beijing.
Hellner opens by calling it “truly a joke” for Senator Chuck Schumer and other Democrats to lecture Trump on confronting China, suggesting the Senate Democratic leader is reacting to left-leaning press coverage rather than to what Trump has actually done. He extends the complaint to some Republicans, whom he says also seem unaware of the administration’s record on the issue.
His central claim is a reading of political incentives: on China specifically, he contends that Trump’s policies are much tougher than those of the Obama and Biden administrations, and that media framing of Trump’s occasionally warm remarks about foreign leaders misses the substance of those policies.
A list of what the columnist credits Trump with doing
Hellner’s column is structured around a partial list of actions he says Trump has taken to restrain China. They span several continents and policy areas.
On the Panama Canal, he credits Trump with taking control of canal ports away from Chinese interests, after, in his account, previous presidents simply watched. On Iran, he writes that Trump is working to dismantle Tehran’s ability to build and buy weapons and to spread terrorism, in contrast to what he calls the improved financial position Iran enjoyed under Obama and Biden. He also credits Trump with blocking Chinese access to cheap Iranian oil, and to cheap Venezuelan oil.
On manufacturing and tariffs, Hellner points to efforts to bring supply chains — including pharmaceutical supply chains — back to the United States from China and other countries, a step he says previous presidents did not take.
On Venezuela, he writes that after decades of watching China and Russia establish a foothold, Trump took what he calls strong actions that Democrats complained about, and that those actions moved most South American countries toward supporting the United States.
On Cuba, Hellner says Trump recognizes the danger of the island functioning as a ward of China and Russia. He criticizes Democrats for focusing on the people fleeing Cuba while, in his telling, ignoring 67 years of communist rule as the cause.
On rare earth minerals, he argues that previous presidents and other countries stood by while China achieved near-monopolistic control, and that Trump is working to correct that. On Greenland, he says Trump secured a long-term agreement preventing a Chinese or Russian military presence, recalling that Democrats called Trump “nuts” when he first raised Greenland.
On energy, Hellner writes that Trump is working to ensure the United States has the most energy and control, while accusing Biden of working to destroy the oil, coal and natural gas industries.
He also cites the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, calling the agreement worthless and dangerous. In his telling, Obama and Biden signed on without congressional approval, an arrangement that would have harmed Americans while giving China a pass; he argues it was naive to expect Russia, Iran or other oil producers to give up their livelihoods. He credits Trump with pressing NATO allies to substantially increase defense spending, which he frames as diminishing Russian and Chinese power.
On immigration, he says Trump is finally enforcing the border after what he describes as Democratic support for letting in everyone, including gang members, terrorists and what he calls a large number of communist men from China.
Birthright citizenship and birth tourism
Hellner devotes particular attention to birthright citizenship, which he calls a dangerous and idiotic practice. He argues that Trump is trying to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in the country, and that Democrats and judges are fighting him at every step.
He asserts that China is a major user of birthright citizenship — a story, he claims, that major news networks and Democrats refuse to mention. He links the issue to birth tourism, which he calls a major industry that grew out of what he sees as the neglect of previous presidents, and says these stories will not appear on nightly news or on social media outlets that, in his words, have not cared about facts for a long time.
The column then points to State Department action. According to Hellner, the department is defending the integrity of U.S. citizenship by ending illegal birth tourism schemes, and no foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child born here. He describes a case in which a U.S. embassy in West Africa uncovered a network of more than 100 foreign nationals using fraudulent documents and visa “fixers” to obtain visas in order to secure citizenship for their children.
He rounds out his list with a comparison to the Reagan era, writing that Reagan had the vision to pursue the Strategic Defense Initiative while Trump had the vision to create the Space Force, as Democrats laughed or complained.
The argument under the list
The column’s closing argument is about how voters should weigh rhetoric against action. Hellner urges readers to pay attention to what Trump does to counter China, Russia and North Korea rather than to his pleasant language about their leaders, insisting that he has been much stricter with those countries than Obama, Biden and other Democrats, regardless of what the media says.
He then poses a choice: leadership like Trump’s, which he says has the vision to control countries including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, or figures he names as alternatives — Gavin Newsom, whom he chides over an unfinished train project, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom he caricatures as believing the world has only a few years left because of oil use, and what he calls the lawless politicians in sanctuary cities and states who let anyone come in.
The piece ends with a broader note about free expression, which Hellner calls crucial to the republic now more than ever.
It is worth being clear about what this column is. It is an opinion piece making a partisan case, not a news report. Several of its factual assertions — about the scale of Chinese birthright citizenship use, about the West African visa network, about the effect of Trump’s actions in South America, and about the intentions of past administrations — are presented as settled fact without citations. Readers evaluating the argument should treat it as a political brief from one side of a long-running debate over how to handle Beijing, not as a neutral inventory of U.S. policy.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/hypocritical-democrats-lecture-trump-about-the-risks-china-poses/