#china
5 entries with this tag
A $1 Billion U.S. Navy Destroyer Went Completely Dead in the Water for Four Days in the Contested South China Sea — Its Sailors Left Without Drinkable Water, Meals, Working Toilets, or Air Conditioning in 95-Degree Heat — the Second American Warship in a Single Month to Strand Its Crew in Such Conditions, Kept Quiet Until Reporters Found It
On July 24, 2026, the USS Benfold — a roughly $1 billion Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer sailing with the George Washington carrier strike group — suffered an "engineering casualty" involving its generators and lost all power in the South China Sea, one of the most contested and strategically vital bodies of water on Earth. For four days the nearly 10,000-ton warship was dead in the water: unable to maneuver on its own, and with its galley, toilets, air conditioning, and potable (drinkable) water all knocked out, while temperatures in the region ran 90 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit. A U.S. cruiser, the USS Robert Smalls, had to bring hot meals to the crew; the Benfold was then towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines, with power finally restored on July 30 — six days after the failure — and repairs completed by August 8. No sailors were injured, and the cause remains under investigation. The incident is not, by itself, proof of anything beyond a bad mechanical failure. But it is the second time in a single month that an American warship has left its crew without water, food, functioning toilets, and air conditioning — coming right after the USS Abraham Lincoln's supply-and-conditions crisis in the Gulf. Two such breakdowns in a month, in two different oceans, is not a run of bad luck; it is the shape of a fleet stretched thin and worn down. And the Navy did not announce it — the four-day paralysis of a billion-dollar destroyer in waters the U.S. patrols specifically to deter China only became public weeks later, when journalists reported it.
Trump Fired Every Remaining Member of the Bipartisan Election Assistance Commission — Gutting the Agency That Certifies Voting Machines Four Months Before the Midterms — Then Gave a Primetime Address Claiming China Stole "220 Million Voter Files," a Claim His Own Government's Intelligence Flatly Contradicts
On July 16, 2026, Trump delivered a 25-minute primetime address from the White House East Room claiming he was "declassifying intelligence" that revealed "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure" — including the assertion that "The People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files." His own government's intelligence contradicts him: a federal report from March 2021 concluded "We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections." FactCheck.org and others found the documents the White House posted did not support the sweeping claims. The speech came exactly one week after Trump fired the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission — Democrats Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland (dismissed by email) and Republican Christy McCormick (asked to resign by phone) — leaving the bipartisan federal agency that certifies voting-machine standards and helps states run elections without a quorum, unable to act, and unlikely to regain one before the November midterms. The White House cited a recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision on the president's power to fire independent-agency members as its justification. Trump also repeated debunked 2020 conspiracy theories and baselessly claimed fraud cost a Republican the Los Angeles mayoral primary. A Reuters analysis found his noncitizen-voting claims unsupported — just 129 prosecutions under the relevant law since 1996, most involving confusion or paperwork errors, not organized fraud. It all lands atop the administration's broader campaign to seize control of election administration: the FEMA counterterrorism-funding blackmail, the SAVE voter-roll purges, and DOJ criminal threats to state officials.
Trump Now Blockades the Strait He Threatened to End a Civilization to Reopen
After peace talks collapsed, Trump ordered a full U.S. Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — "any and all ships" in either direction. Iran had been letting tankers through for a $2M toll. Trump spent weeks threatening to end Iran's civilization over the strait's partial closure. Now the U.S. is closing it itself.
Tariff Trade War Economic Damage
Trump's tariffs constituted the largest U.S. tax increase as a percentage of GDP since 1993, costing average households $1,500/year. The U.S. lost the equivalent of 2,800 factories. The Supreme Court ruled his tariff authority was unauthorized.
$7.8 Million from Foreign Governments While President
House investigators documented $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments flowing to Trump businesses during his presidency — China alone paid $5.6M. CREW estimates the true total at $13.6M. Trump never sought required congressional consent.