Not a fan of the current (soon to be previous) admin, but I have to acknowledge that a direct approach on China has been more effective than the last 3 decades of Asian pivots ( Bill Clinton tried focusing on China as well ).
American politics has brief focus windows, direct action has more impact than vague "pivots" or "focuses" which last about as long as the next crisis.
Short term, sure. But as we saw, US admins and foreign policy changes fast enough, max after 8 years. Being they only super power carries the responsibility to keep things stable. That means consistency, direct action of one single admin can very well the opposite of that. Especially when the other party plays the long game.
I would be inclined to agree, if Trump had any strategy behind that. His policies, or rather lack thereof, don't support that. I'd say he just stumbled around and got lucky once. And even that has to be seen.
American politics has brief focus windows, direct action has more impact than vague "pivots" or "focuses" which last about as long as the next crisis.