Trump's America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Oddly Familiar to Those Watching from the East

When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to avoid. “I don't engage in openly criticizing the administration,” she stated. And when she does, she ensures it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly material in which I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit from China.”

The comedian, thirty-nine, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to the US. Upon arrival, she embarked on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” going to lectures, demonstrations, and delving into the city's library system.

However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I understood where the line was, while here I find myself on unstable ground.”

Wang’s concerns mirror a new political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in the country, find disturbingly similar. Enemies face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has not been shy about his admiration for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in America that closer ties with the East may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than vice versa.

“The United States is experiencing an era of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at a top Chinese university. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken the elite … similar to events in China half a century ago.”

Since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on federal institutions early on in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed US politics through the lens of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, though without equivalent degrees of force.

But since the upheaval of the initial period of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Lighthouse Is Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.

Deng Haiyan, now a Chinese Communist party dissenter, found himself in a controversy this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He resided in America for several years, having fled China because of harassment from officials.

In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – who were fired for expressing criticism regarding him – Deng faced significant backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.

His pile on came from fellow social media users, instead of the state, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.

“In terms of going after those who disagree and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in China now as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on educators, a form of surveillance promoted by the CCP.

Zhang, the legal expert, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US isn't a ideal for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined across the board.”

“We once viewed the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn parallels with China, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.

Recently, the US government stated it would become an investor in a startup focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms it considers essential for the country's safety. These moves have left certain stakeholders concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations among others refused to sign to a defense department rule that required reporting solely on approved information. American judiciary have blocked or reversed many of Trump’s actions, an action that would be impossible in China’s party-dominated judiciary.

Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of a consulting firm, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it would remain freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

The professor observes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see US universities yield to official requests concerning diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are all state-owned by default. Administrators, who are appointed by the government, “cannot refuse. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Nevertheless, people in the US are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at an American college once vocal on bilateral matters refused to speak for this article. He said: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I actually feel more comfortable to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad