Otto von Bismarck dubbed politics, including diplomacy, the “art of the possible.” During his trip to Asia, President Donald Trump was rudely reminded of this axiom.

At the outset of the trip, he was determined to impress his hosts with America’s strength, only to be reminded of America’s limitations.

Particularly with the People’s Republic of China, with its great quantity of “rare earth” minerals, supplying key ingredients that power the world economy. He agreed to lower Chinese tariffs by 10%, and the PRC offered to buy American soybeans. Overall, Xi Jinping demonstrated an advantage in these negotiations. Trump sensed this and prudently played his hand and compromised.

More significantly, there are issues he did not press, such as China’s imports of Russian oil or TikTok. As well, the Taiwan situation was not discussed. Trump would not be the first leader to discover that his opposite number had superior resources. To their credit, he and his Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, received the rare earth minerals and sold some agricultural goods.

Trump must realize that the world is not simply an economic tree on which the United States can freely pick its fruit. Although Trump has attempted to shift American priorities, he has not yet fully repudiated Cold War notions of supremacy.

Rare earth minerals provide the computer chips and batteries that enable people to have smartphones and automobiles. Unfortunately, the top few providers are no friends of the United States.

Indeed, none of the main problems of the United States were created by Trump. His predecessors were Eurocentric, and he inherited that legacy. European colonialism, which looted the world in the name of progress, is a thing of the past.

The people whom Great Britain and France once exploited so freely now control their own resources. Now that Europeans are left with their faux human rights tactics and, if they’re lucky, their “color revolutions” to overthrow regimes holding much envied resources.

The United States is in a much better shape than these imperial relics. However, Trump complicates matters with his devotion to tariffs. He tries to write peace agreements, but assumes that America is superior to them. Yet unlike the George W. Bushes of the world, he has not been so insistent on having it all.

Trump does have a weakness, and that is that he thinks of hydraulics in a digital world. His pipe-dream of re-creating American industry as it existed in the 1980s distorts his view of the world.

Although he is no less insistent on this American age, then those that went before him as president. The difference is that Trump tries to think outside the Cold War box. This allows for some hope that he will pursue a politics based on reality.