If Xi turns out to have been an ally of Trump during the big Election Bust (a big if), then it would be a remarkable departure from the storyline I had been assuming was playing out.
In the Postmodern Era, where everything is narrative, and where we collectively decide the narrative of history as we go, it is important to nimble in ones assignments of roles of various persons. Do you know a certain person is a bad guy or a good guy? In movies, we usually always know, or are encouraged to think we know the answer. We want the story to play out in a way that elucidates the characters of the people involved. Good guys will triumph. Bad guys will face justice.
The Crisis of Postmodernity is that we have are so far "down the rabbit hole" of narratological weaving, through both media and social media, and by the way we talk to each other about what we see there, that we believe that we actually control history through this fashion.
The reality of history has no obligation to play out according to our dramas. We are not watching a movie that plays out according to the story arc canons of Hollywood, whether it be a movie, or a streaming series adapted from an unfinished series of novels, etc.
Trump has long recognized that the public assigns personages in the drama of Public Life, and that it was possible for him to take charge of his own persona. He adopted the stance of the subset of drama performers who stay in character whenever they are on camera---the professional wrestling circuit. He became the bad guy and learned to take control of his own negativity within public life.
Most people who hate him suffer from a cognitive rigidity regarding who he really is. They insist they that must be the worst bad guy of bad guys. This insistence had led many of them into mental illness, and they struggle in the Cult of the Press (people who appear on camera are heroes).
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