In 2015, Donald Trump said Xi Jinping deserved a Big Mac, not a state dinner. Last night, he threw the Chinese premier a state dinner. He met Xi at the plane on Wednesday, welcomed him to the White House with fighter jets and military bands, and toasted him last night before a room full of billionaires. “We’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said.

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It’s quite a turn. During the Biden years, a Beijing economics professor with Communist Party ties bragged that China had long had “old friends” at the top of American power. He then complained, “Wall Street can’t fix Trump.” We quoted this man in 2021 as evidence that China’s growing influence in Washington had finally met some resistance.

• In 2012, Trump blasted Barack Obama for giving then Vice President Xi full military honors at the Pentagon: “So wrong!”

• But yesterday, President Trump gave Xi everything he once mocked and met him at the airport himself—something no president has done for a secular foreign leader in more than 60 years. At last night’s dinner, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Tim Cook sat at the head table, and Jamie Dimon was on the guest list.

How did China turn Trump? In truth, it’s not as though the president has become simply pro-China. Last week he imposed heavy tariffs on the largest buyers of Russian oil, and China leads that list. In May, his administration sanctioned three Chinese satellite firms for helping Iran target American forces.

But China clearly has leverage. It has shown it can hurt America faster than America can hurt it.

• It has its hand on America’s supply lines. Last year, Beijing cut off rare-earth elements, and American factories began shutting down.

• Trump also needs Xi to help end the Iran war. Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, and Americans are paying for it at the pump. China is Iran’s biggest oil customer—and the power best placed to pressure Tehran. Analysts have warned that China’s price for that help could be Taiwan.

Consider the pageantry during Xi’s visit as part of the cost when an adversarial nation controls your supply chain and holds the key to your war. Trump is eager to smooth things over and avoid complications.

• In July, an Iranian missile strike killed three U.S. troops in Jordan. U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that Chinese sources had supplied Iran with satellite imagery of the base. Asked whether he would raise the issue with Xi, Trump replied, “They basically do what we do.”

• China still hasn’t bought the American soybeans it promised, yet on the eve of Xi’s visit, Washington extended the trade truce anyway.

• Yesterday, Trump ignored questions about Taiwan and about jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai.

Gerald Flurry has explained that Trump fills the role of an end-time Jeroboam ii, a flawed king God used to spare Israel for a time (2 Kings 14:26-27). That temporary deliverance happened despite the king’s and the nation’s wickedness.

• We said in that 2021 article that Trump’s fight would prove short-lived if Americans did not repent.

Meanwhile, China acts like the adversary it is. Its oil purchases give Iran’s regime an economic lifeline during a war with America. Its state-sponsored hackers have burrowed into American power, water, transportation and communications networks, positioning to sabotage them in a crisis. Its leader warned Trump in May of “clashes and even conflicts” over Taiwan.

• Yet America’s president calls this a great friendship.

Bible prophecy reveals that China will help lead an Asian power bloc that joins with a European superpower to besiege America economically (Isaiah 23). America’s fawning over Xi on this trip showed who holds the leverage.

Did Ethiopia’s Civil War Restart?

Ethiopian rebels launched a coordinated offensive, capturing key territory from the government in what may be the restart of civil war.

• On the night of September 22-23, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (tplf) captured airports in Axum, Shire and Mekele from the government with apparently little resistance. Afterward, the tplf and the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, another rebel group, captured the town of Abala in the region of Afar.

• Fighting was also reported around the communities of Tonsa, Berahile, Dallol and Erebti.

• The Ethiopian government reportedly responded with air strikes.

The fighting seems concentrated around Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

Context: Between 2020 and 2022, Tigray state and the tplf launched a rebellion against the federal government that quickly devolved into civil war. Both sides committed horrendous massacres and other atrocities.

• With an estimated death toll of 600,000 to 800,000 people, the war may be, thus far, the deadliest conflict of the 21st century. The conflict ended with a 2022 peace treaty, but the underlying issues—mainly the tplf refusing to accept government rule—remain.

• The recent fighting suggests this war is about to re-erupt.

Prophecy to be fulfilled? Daniel 11:40 prophesies of an end-time “king of the south” that provokes world war. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains in The King of the South that this bloc represents radical Islam, led by Iran. Verses 42-43 show Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia will ally with this king of the south.

Ethiopia is a majority Christian nation and seems unlikely to join a predominantly Islamist bloc. But renewed unrest could provide radical Islam the opening it needs.

Americans: Sweeter on Socialism

Support for socialism just hit a record high in America. Gallup reported this week that 43 percent of Americans now view socialism positively—the first time that figure has topped 39 percent since Gallup began tracking it in 2010—including two thirds of Democrats.

• Independents drove this recent jump: Their positive rating of socialism rose from 37 to 45 percent in one year, and their view of big business fell to 32 percent, a new low.

Socialism’s rating has climbed 7 points in 15 years. Free enterprise has fallen 9 points; capitalism, 6; and big business, 14.

• Among Democrats, the slide is steep. In 2021, 88 percent viewed free enterprise favorably. Today, 65 percent do—a 23-point drop in five years. Only 35 percent of Democrats view capitalism positively.

Old vs. young: Americans ages 18 to 34 rate socialism above capitalism, 57 percent to 43. Those 55 and older rate capitalism higher, 65 percent to 34.

• Asked what is good about socialism, 42 percent of older Americans said, “Nothing.” Only 13 percent of young adults did.

• Americans 55 or older were adults when the Berlin Wall fell. Those under 35 don’t remember the Soviet Union.

Forgetting is how nations lose blessings. America’s wealth was not the product of a clever economic model. It was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 22:17), as Herbert W. Armstrong proved in The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

• Moses warned that prosperity would breed forgetfulness: “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth …” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

America forgot God first. Now a generation is forgetting even the system and is looking to government for the security only God can give.