With Trump facing China, America needs more weapons

President Donald Trump’s chief objective in his forthcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping should be to preserve peace in the Pacific. In the long run, that will require fixing America’s anemic defense industrial base.

Some commentators have argued that Trump is going into the summit in a weak position. As evidence, they point to his low poll numbers and the unresolved war against Iran.

But Xi cares more about hard power than he does about political predictions from pundits. And Trump has a strong hand to play: The United States has demonstrated its unparalleled military strength and sophistication with recent operations in Venezuela and Iran.

In the former, it went into the capital of a hostile foreign country and seized its leader, Nicolas Maduro, without losing a single American life. In Iran, a final settlement remains elusive, but the U.S. has severely degraded Iran’s defense industrial base, sunk its navy, and