The world today stands at a historical turning point.

Over the past two decades, the West has shown unmistakable signs of decline. Internally, it has lost confidence, been corroded by left-wing Marxist ideology, and been overwhelmed by massive illegal migration. Externally, a new “Axis of Evil” is ascendant, the anti-American alliance of repressive regimes including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.

President Donald Trump understands the threat of this alliance — and China in particular — more than his predecessors ever did. And he realizes China cannot be defeated in isolation. It must be strategically surrounded, economically strained, and stripped of its allies.

Armed with this understanding, Trump has moved with speed and clarity so far in his second term. Upon returning to office, Trump reignited the tariff war against China, deliberately targeting Beijing at a moment of extreme vulnerability, after Xi Jinping’s draconian COVID policies had already crippled China’s economy.

Then came decisive blows against China’s key partners.

In late June, Trump authorized the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. In September, the U.S. military began striking narco-terrorist vessels operating out of Venezuela. This campaign culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, shattering China’s and Russia’s primary foothold in Latin America.

The effects were immediate and dramatic. Thousands of Venezuelan political prisoners were released, achieving in days what decades of U.N. resolutions and human-rights advocacy had failed to accomplish. At the same time, widespread anti-regime protests that erupted in Iran in late December began to intensify.

Reports have emerged that Iranian demonstrators openly appealed to Trump for help. Trump publicly expressed support for the protesters, telling them, “help is on the way,” and warning Iranian leaders, “you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”

Beijing is watching with horror, knowing the same could one day happen in China. What we are witnessing is the rapid unraveling of the New Axis of Evil.

For the Chinese Communist Party, unrest in Iran and regime collapse in Venezuela represent strategic disasters. China is losing key partners, critical energy access, and geopolitical leverage — along with up to $100 billion in Venezuelan investments that are now effectively unrecoverable. Worse, these crises expose Beijing’s inability to protect or stabilize its allied dictatorships.

The dominoes do not stop there. Without Venezuelan oil subsidies, Cuba — the longest-lasting communist regime in the Western Hemisphere — cannot survive. North Korea, effectively a CCP client state, faces an even grimmer future as China’s own economy deteriorates. Russia, the last major pillar of this bloc, is bogged down in its costly war in Ukraine and increasingly dependent on Chinese economic lifelines — lifelines that are themselves fraying.

After the Maduro capture, the American Left condemned Trump for violating international law. They fail to grasp a fundamental reality: international law has already collapsed. The greatest rule-breaker is Communist China, which violated nearly every international rule and norm on its path to superpower status. Trump does not seek to restrain rule-breakers with fantasies. He seeks to dismantle the ecosystems that sustain them.

This is the essence of the Trump Doctrine: sever the links that allow repressive regimes to support one another, clear hostile powers out of America’s strategic backyard, and prevent regional conflicts from metastasizing into global catastrophe. From Latin America to the Arctic, Trump has moved to block Chinese and Russian encroachment — including openly asserting American strategic interests in Greenland, which Beijing and Moscow had already penetrated while Denmark stood idle.

And the president is just getting started. Days into the new year, Trump proposed the creation of a “Dream Military,” calling for a 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion — an increase of more than 66%.

By raising the military and technological bar across the board, the United States forces China into an impossible choice: fall further behind, or attempt to keep pace and cripple itself through runaway military spending, technological isolation, and economic slowdown. The Soviet Union faced this very dilemma — and collapsed.

Trump does not need to defeat the CCP in battle. He only needs to force it into a competition it cannot afford.

And that is how empires fall. From within.

Xi Van Fleet and Yu Jie are authors of the forthcoming book “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”

White House border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that the immigration officer involved in the shooting death of anti-ICE activist Renee Good is in hiding.

Homan said that Jonathan Ross is in hiding because of an excessive amount of threats made against him and his family since Good’s death last week. The border czar said that Ross would wait for the investigation to end before he comes out of hiding, and then potentially file lawsuits for defamation.

“I think he’s going to, you know, wait for this investigation to play itself out and wait for them to come out with actual facts, what happened,” Homan said during an appearance on “Will Cain Country.” “Then, I think you may see him take action because I know for a fact, you know, now he has to be in hiding.”

Host Will Cain asked Homan directly if Ross was in hiding now.

“Yes, for the safety of him and his family,” Homan responded. “I mean, there are wanted posters with his picture, his license plate number, you know, and the death threats against him and his family.”

People were seen at Ross’ home late last week packing boxes, a neighbor of Ross told NBC News. Some of Ross’ neighbors have spoken about leaving the area for a few days while the uproar around Good’s death rages.

Last week, Ross shot and killed Good, a 37-year-old activist who blocked and antagonized immigration officials working in Minneapolis. Good blocked a street with her car and held immigration officials up for several minutes. After immigration agents requested she exit her vehicle, she backed up and pulled forward in the direction of Ross. After her car bumped him, Ross fatally shot her.

The shooting has become a flashpoint of criticism over President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Democratic politicians such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have demonized federal immigration enforcement as part of their criticisms of Trump’s agenda.

Walz warned of a brewing “civil war” in the aftermath of the shooting. Last year, he compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Nazi gestapo.

Protests against ICE have featured violent language and threats against ICE and top Trump officials. At a recent protest in Manhattan, activists chanted slogans such as “Save a life, kill an ICE,” and “Kristi Noem will hang.”