Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Recognizable to Observers from the East

As Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only thinking about which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she makes certain it's not recorded for social media. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I think this is a learned behavior acquired back home.”

Wang, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost a decade, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

But in the year after the president was elected again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”

Wang’s concerns mirror an emerging climate in the US which many Chinese, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly familiar. Opponents are ostracised. The leader expects absolute loyalty. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described Xi as “fantastic”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed governance models became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.

“America is undergoing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is attempting to mobilise the grassroots to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to what happened in China decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Whether it is the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

However since the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has emerged in the country, which in different ways also feels familiar to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The deepest similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

A former police officer, now a CCP critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in a repressive state,” Deng said.

Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in China now as too,” she said, adding that concerns are rising in America of students reporting on educators, a type of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

The professor, the legal expert, explained that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined generally.”

“We once viewed America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, the government appears to be pursuing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company specialising in mineral refinement, after taking comparable shares in other companies it considers vital to the country's safety. The deals have left certain stakeholders nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of government meddling in the private sector.

There are still major differences between the US under Trump and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on approved news. American judiciary have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, something that is impossible in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, commented: “America might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it will still be more free, more open, and liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although many intellectuals in the country were shocked to see US universities yield to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in the East, leading institutions are publicly controlled by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford to be disobedient.”

Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures that were once associated with more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university who was previously vocal on bilateral matters refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of the censorship in the US: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad