Trump's People are Obviously Clueless. Just ask the Media.

Bugs at rest.

One of the things I complained about last week was the way the media and commentators have criticized Trump's advisors but never bothered to read what they said. Bloomberg provided an excellent example this week of how the major media dismissively discuss Trump's team using language they would never use with Obama's, even though many individuals on Obama's team come directly out of firms doing business with China, or revolved out to such firms -- all without bothering to find out what Trump's people have actually said. Bloomberg criticized Trump's recent words...

Trump’s threats might be more credible if there were any indication he or his team had thought through these possibilities.

Yeah... let's take a look at what Bloomberg says and compare it to what Trump's people have said. I simply and easily located discussions from Trump people. After you scan this, it will be obvious which of these two sides is the clueless, shallow one that hasn't thought through the possibilities:

Bloomberg	Trump’s Advisers
China has limited room to retaliate economically against the U.S., so Xi is likely to respond strategically -- by undermining the sanctions regime against North Korea, say, or by ramping up the militarization of islands in the South China Sea. At a minimum, Xi might stage military exercises near Taiwan to test U.S. resolve.	John Bolton, Jan 2016 (WSJ)  But Beijing’s ongoing reckoning with economic reality doesn’t necessarily mean it will be less assertive internationally. Authoritarian governments confronted with domestic problems have historically sought to distract their citizens by rallying nationalistic support against foreign adversaries. Who better to blame for China’s economic crash than the U.S. and pesky Taiwan?
On North Korea, existing sanctions legislation empowers the new administration to target Chinese companies and banks involved with Pyongyang’s weapons programs.	Ed Feulner (Korean news)  The United States should impose "secondary boycott" sanctions on Chinese financial institutions for doing business with North Korea, a senior member of the transition team of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was quoted as saying Tuesday. Former Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner, considered a key policy expert in the transition team, made the remark during a meeting with a bipartisan group of South Korean lawmakers, according to Rep. Na Kyung-won of the ruling Saenuri Party.
In the South China Sea, that means re-energizing the Obama administration’s efforts to build a regional coalition committed to defending the freedom of the seas and skies.	Peter Navarro (the Globalist) Beijing is not seeing this chessboard wrong. The question is whether American diplomacy can truly pivot to Asia and make this rapidly deteriorating situation right. John Bolton Fox Beijing does not want actual hostilities, but believes it can achieve its central objectives by threats and pressure alone. In response, America should immediately engage in more extensive and assertive “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea.  Moreover, Washington should launch far more active diplomatic efforts to induce Southeast Asia’s other territorial claimants to resolve their competing claims and thereby present a united front to Beijing.
On trade and market access, finding a way to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership would do more than tweaking Xi over Taiwan to push the region in a direction more favorable to the U.S.	A whole piece from Vox.com about how many people around Trump support the TPP
naming and shaming state-linked Chinese hackers	Bolton has written in great detail on this exact topic in an LA Times Op-ed. And his ideas are much better…. First, America must create structures of deterrence. Starting now, America's cyber response should be disproportionate. The justification for such a response is all too clear: Without it we are facing repeated cycles of cyber incursions.  To persuade Beijing and others to desist, they must believe their conduct will result in costs that are unacceptable and unsustainable…
more aggressively using World Trade Organization rules to punish Chinese product dumping.	Navarro has explained at length on why the WTO can’t be used: it is too slow. You can argue that he is wrong, but you can’t argue that he hasn’t thought about it

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