Trump Is Playing 3D Chess With Putin and Xi—and Kissinger Wrote the Playbook | Victor Davis Hanson

There's a lot of acrimony right now about a planned summit with the three most powerful leaders, at least in terms of nuclear weapons and military: Vladimir Putin, President Xi of China, and Donald Trump. What's he want to get out of this?

He would like to be a triangulator. He would like to tell Putin, "I don't want you to be friendlier to China than you are to us." He wants to tell Xi, "I don't want you to consider us a greater enemy than you consider Putin.” We want all three to balance each other out.