America engineered the petrodollar by offering the Saudis preferential access to US Treasuries- everyone wanted them they were 'good as gold'. That was in the 1970s. Today the Saudis have joined the Chinese led mBridge trade payments protocol development group and BRICS. The USD reserve currency status is facing a real and existential threat from the fact that since the petrodollar was negotiated the US has lived beyond its means via the 'endless' seigniorage-credit possible for the global reserve currency issuer and while China has accumulated wealth via trade surpluses the US has accumulated debt via trade deficits. No politician wanted to deal with this but those who the US are now dependent upon to roll over its growing mountain of short term debt have insisted upon a radical austerity program. Trump is implementing one. The pain as always will be felt most by the poorest citizens, while Trump and his cronies will give themselves more tax cuts. The USA must rationalise its empire- the current debt servicing cost is greater than military expenditure. At the same time China has stopped buying US Treasuries and is instead investing in the infrastructure of empire- Belt and Road physical infrastructure - ports, rail, satellites, mining, refining, shipping and telecommunications networks...further strengthening its already undeniable and strategic productive economy advantage. Tertiary infrastructure- Banking and finance protocols and institutions. Dominance in trade has always logically led to if not gone hand in hand with dominance in trade payments/currency...and the military force to back it and protect strategic trade routes. China is reverse engineering the wests banking networks which were core to western imperialism, via Hong Kong (where they were initially imposed upon China), HSBC, CBDC/digital currency and building a new digital trade settlement protocol faster, stronger and more efficient than USD/SWIFTs slow, antiquated, expensive strategically fundamental legacy hegemony. Trump has no choice than to take these extreme measures which signal the end of the era of US exceptionalism and the beginning of an era of US isolationism, retreat and rationalisation in the face of China having already won the trade war and now moving logically and inevitably, to control the global trade payments system. Bitcoin will almost certainly have a significant role in this transition as a neutral safe haven analogous to how Swiss banks once served in Europe, but it is improbable that Bitcoin will emerge as the dominant monetary system unless the now dominant trading power chose to adopt it- which is unlikely given the diametrically opposed ethos of the two respective ideologies...CCP & Bitcoin. Bitcoin is more suited to a role in creating a shadow financial network such as Britain constructed during the decline of its empire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8