The Trumpian rhetoric against China is already hitting scary new highs and we’re only 4 days into Donald Trump’s presidency. Now may be the time to short Las Vegas Sands. Says Reuters, quoting anti-press secretary Sean Spicer on Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson’s opinion on a bunch of islands in the South China Sea:

“The U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there,” Spicer said when asked if Trump agreed with comments by his secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that China should not be allowed access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.

What interests are they talking about? Your interests? My interests? I have no interests at all in mounds of dirt in the South China Sea. Do any of us? Normal peoples’ biggest interest is to leave nuclear armed governments alone, especially when you owe that government over $1 trillion and engage in over half a trillion dollars in trade annually.

If the US directly confronts China over those islands, all hell is going to break loose economically. I really don’t know if Trump understands that all China has to do is hit the “sell at market” button on its Treasury holdings all at once and the US government is finished financially. Meanwhile, the people protesting Trump are all totally missing the point as they’re worried about funding for Planned Parenthood and contraception and transgendered bathrooms and other things that won’t mean anything if economic cooperation with China breaks down into open conflict. And where would the US get money for funding Planned Parenthood and birth control and transgendered bathrooms in the first place? They’d borrow it from China of course.