Oh yeah once COVID hit everything went out the window. Without COVID I think the US and China would have been able to really get into the trade stuff and "fix it" but COVID ended up driving that off the road because we needed things that only China had/made. I think long term we will be happier with those trade moves though because it really kick-started bringing back pretty fundamental things to the US or allied nations.

During COVID not a single person knew what was going on or how to react and it was a lose-lose situation for whoever was in office. I think some of the stuff being delayed from China though ended up saving lives as well. For instance, ventilators were thought to be good to help people recover only to kill a bunch of them.

Overall it was just crap timing with COVID hitting. Without that I think it all would have worked out and the issued we had with China in particular, would have been a whole lot smoother.