[sudosysgen]

It's not, but it's not coincidence either. The reason for the US entanglements in the Persian Gulf intensifying are because it's a choke point for oil, and the reason the US feels freer to mess around is because the US became an oil exporter. So the fact it's hurting China more than the US (in some ways) is related to the factors that led the war to start, even though it's not 27D hyperchess.

[randbyte]

You think too much. Trump got duped into a gamble and didn’t win as he thought. If the hope is to hurt China it’s unlikely to be working very well. Their energy sources and oil sources are very diversified.

[elmer2]

Trump wasn't 'duped'. He did underestimate the level of involvement in Iran that would be required.

It is hurting China. Their economy has slowed to a crawl as a result of stalled oil and has delayed any real gains they had by at least a couple of years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/business/china-economy-gd...

Do you think Trump makes all of these decisions? Like all presidents, he has many advisors around him.

[randbyte]

Bibi tried many times. Every president before Trump understood the risks and refused the wild plan. Only Trump fell for it.

China’s factory outputs are in fact increasing. So is their export. You wouldn’t see this if they are energy constrained. China’s problems are weak consumption and deflation. It started way before this year and has very little to do with Iran.

[podocarp]

He was definitely duped by Benny. Him underestimating was part of the dupe. He did not just come up with this shit on his own. Someone fed it to him, and it's most likely Benny. And he slurped it all up. And yes, he made the decision, this is well documented. You can't just push the blame onto advisors. In that case Hitler would be innocent, he could just shove everything on his mad advisors.