We are starting to see the phrase "cold war" used when it comes to the rumble between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

In fact, the Don has been punching up town everywhere.

A lot like Ali, he floats around an issue seeming to want to find some middle ground, and once he's disarmed his opponent, he delivers a stinging punch like a bee sting to the nose in broad daylight.

He has done it with Xi, Putin, Jong-un, Trudeau, J-C Juncker and most recently he delivered a blinding right hook to Erdogan by slapping double rate tariffs on imported Turkish metals.

The Don's blunt instrument of choice - that would be tariffs.

On the other side, Xi is responding with a barrage of economic/technological espionage, retaliatory tariffs, his Belt and Road 'soft power' initiative, and perhaps the most worrying to the CIA, a resurging military.

As the conflict moves to a new level, there are some interesting perspectives from CIA operatives in this CNN article. Food for thought.

Have a great weekend.

Mike

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