This is the central paradox of modern defense industrial policy: poor output can become an argument for giving the existing structure more money because the country cannot tolerate the consequences of its collapse.

Chinese technology and intelligence capabilities have already become relevant to Iranian surveillance of American forces, although there is presently no public evidence establishing a Djibouti-to-Tehran intelligence pipeline. That distinction matters, but so does the question it raises: whether China's growing ability to collect regional intelligence might eventually provide Beijing with another means of indirectly influencing conflicts without becoming an overt participant.

The appropriate question is not whether every Trump economic policy is individually good or bad. It is whether these policies collectively produce the American industrial capacity, skilled workforce, higher productivity and greater economic independence they are intended to create.