Trump’s Asian Dance Moves, Trade deals & Shutdown Showdown – Top 3 Takeaways, October 27th, 2025
Takeaway #1: TRUMP DANCE MALAYSIA VERSION
There are two things that are particularly cool about President Trump’s dances. The first is that they’re just plain fun. As opposed to your typically stiff, stale and historically awkward politicians, when Trump breaks into his dance – it addresses all of those things head on. The man knows he can’t really dance, he doesn’t care – he's going to have fun anyway. I’ve always appreciated that about him because on a personal note, I’m that guy too. My wonderful wife Ashley loves to dance, I’m a terrible dancer – but I just don’t care, I’ll go out in any venue and dance with her because that’s something she likes to do and it ends up being fun anyway. There’s a lot to be said for being comfortable in your own skin and less concerned about what other people might have to say. That’s Trump to a “T”, but the other thing that’s great about the Trump dance, is that for the many of us with “Two left feet”, is that it’s made it ok for many people to not be great. Over the weekend, on the first leg of his Asian tour, President Trump made his way to Malaysia where he was greeted by the Prime Minister, and a troupe of dancers as he exited Air Force One. This prompted the president to head over to the dancing troupe and do what he later called TRUMP DANCE MALAYSIA VERSION. It also led to the Malaysian prime minister looking at Trump, looking at the troupe, and dancing his own Trump Dance Malaysia version too. That’s just plain fun! Who said politics had to be full of stiff and boring people doing stiff and boring things? Anyway, the main reason my top takeaway today involves a Malaysian dance isn’t due to the dancing. It’s due to two highly impactful things that are in the process of happening. The first is this... President Trump continued to sure up peace around the world by overseeing the ceasefire he recently negotiated between Thailand and Cambodia, being signed into a permanent peace agreement. We’ve literally never seen a U.S. President broker as much peace as Trump has already done within year one of his presidency. But the bigger picture as it pertains to you and me and the future of this country has to do with...
Takeaway #2: His latest trade deal.
President Trump has been focused on rare earth and mineral rights. Over the weekend he struck a deal with Malaysia that didn’t and likely won’t get much attention, but that is critically huge to what comes next. It was Monday of last week that President Trump signed a massive, rare earth and mineral rights deal with Australia. The Malaysian deal further buttresses the U.S.’s position having offset much of the mineral demand we’ve historically relied on China for. Turning to Australia and Malaysia over China is a smart thing to do, and the best thing we could do anyway, but it also places President Trump and the United States in a much stronger position heading into the final stop with Chinese President Xi Jing Ping this week. So, about that... President Trump’s Art of the Deal focuses on leverage...as in who has it and how it can be used. When it comes to rare earth minerals which are vital for many technologies we use and rely on every day, are critical for national defense and that are paramount in the AI race, China has most of the cards. China currently produces about 60% of the rare earth minerals mined around the world. That’s a number that jumps higher still to approximately 90% when accounting for the refining of these materials for final distribution as well. China’s strongest position on the world stage isn’t being the world’s destination for using effectively slave labor to manufacture things cheaply. It’s for the rare minerals it controls. The two deals that President Trump has signed within the past week represent approximately 15% of the future rare earth minerals we need. We’re far from being completely decoupled from China’s rare earth dominance generally, however one would imagine that China would much rather not lose 15% of its US mineral business and the influence on other decisions that might come along with it. All of this is to say that through tariffs and trade deals President Trump has put the U.S. in about as strong of a position as possible heading into this week’s high stakes meeting with Xi Jing Ping. So, about that meeting...it figures to being interesting. The meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday of this week in South Korea at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. He’ll notably...
Takeaway #3: Not be anywhere near Washington, D.C. until the end of the week.
That’s a rather clear indication that a) there will be no negotiating with Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats, save three, who continue to refuse to sign onto a clean continuing resolution to fund the federal government or for that matter to even pay the essential federal employees who’ve been reporting to work for what’s now 27 days. Over 1.2 current federal government employees are set to miss their regularly scheduled payday tomorrow, the 28th. One might imagine that might place additional pressure on Democrats to at least pay the people showing up to work every day. Because of our GSS media, it’s likely to be spun but to be clear Republicans have proposed paying all essential federal employees as scheduled but Democrats have voted against it – seeking to attempt to use them as pawns in their plans to have 92% of Obamacare plans subsidized by you and me permanently – in addition to eliminating the recently restored Medicaid work requirements. But while Marxist Democrats seek to install socialism into our society you may have noticed something else happening. Not only is it the case that we’re nearly four weeks into a partial government shutdown without most people even noticing...you may have seen your 401k and retirement accounts hitting new highs by the day. Lower inflation than expected, better corporate earnings reports than expected, lower interest rates that are on the way this week, continue to lead most Americans with retirement accounts to record prosperity.