Chapter 203 New Target: Trump

Mu Xin was staying at The Langham in Chicago. The reason for choosing this hotel was simple: safety first in everything.

As for why it was safe, it was entirely because of the building across the street.

Outside the window of The Langham, directly opposite, was Trump Tower, the letters "Trump" at the top of the building glowing white in the night.

Mu Xin stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at those letters, his mind still turning over what Parks had said to him.

"Do not go looking for those who have already stepped down..."

"Go find those who will reach the pinnacle of power in the coming years..."

Parks was right; Pritzker was indeed a good target, highly compatible with his own commercial direction.

Following the path Parks laid out, the probability of success was high, and the risk was low.

Mu Xin looked at the five illuminated letters on the building opposite, and another question began to form in his mind.

Pritzker would reach the pinnacle of power in the coming years, but what if he went directly to someone who had already been at the pinnacle and was currently preparing to climb back up?

The name on the building opposite represented a former US President, a real estate tycoon, a man who had ground Washington political rules into the dirt for four whole years.

He had lost an election, been indicted in criminal cases, and been politically sentenced to death countless times by mainstream media, yet now he stood once again at the very center of the Republican Party, at the center of America.

If one were looking for political allies, why look for someone about to reach the pinnacle of power, rather than someone who had already proven he could sit in the presidential seat for four full years and had already reached the top once again?

Pritzker could provide access to clean energy in one state, but Trump could provide something on an entirely different scale.

Trump's political base was in the Rust Belt: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio...

(The Rust Belt refers to the region in the American Midwest and Northeast that experienced economic decline due to the decay of traditional heavy industry, mainly including Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, etc.)

His own power company was in Ohio, which happened to overlap perfectly with the swing state districts Trump most needed to win.

Trump never relied on establishment donations; his political fundraising mostly came from small individual donations and a few loyal billionaire allies.

This meant he needed large donors, but not the kind from Wall Street who were stuffing money into his opponents' pockets.

He needed people who could talk to him directly, provide campaign resources, and create jobs in swing states.

Moreover, Trump didn't care that much about a donor's background; everyone was already accusing him of having ties to foreign powers, and he was long since immune to that.

Mu Xin thought of another issue. There was a detail in the advice Parks gave him that was easy to overlook: Pritzker held a recently passed clean energy bill, which was one of Pritzker's most important political assets.

However, one of the core issues of Trump's campaign was energy independence and the return of manufacturing; he didn't want climate goals, he wanted factories to reopen.

If you talked to him about carbon emissions, he wouldn't engage, but he would talk to you about whether Ohio's energy structure could lower the operating costs of manufacturing plants to the same level as overseas competitors.

The Distributed Power Generation in Mu Xin's hands was exactly that kind of thing—it didn't talk about policy frameworks, only about the cost per kilowatt-hour.

With Pritzker, one needed to pass the training certification clauses of the bill to find an entry point for cooperation; with Trump, one only needed a single number: that your electricity was a few percentage points lower than the average industrial electricity price on the Gulf Coast.

Mu Xin didn't continue the simulation in his mind; he picked up his phone and dialed Jack's number.

"Mr. Mu, I was just about to send you a message. Regarding Chicago—"

"Jack," Mu Xin interrupted him. "Hold on. I'm at The Langham in Chicago, and I'm looking right at Trump Tower."

Jack paused on the other end. "Your hotel is right across from Trump Tower. And?"

"I spoke with Pastor Parks this afternoon. He suggested I give up on Barack Obama and recommended Pritzker instead," Mu Xin said concisely.

"Pritzker is a good target. The training clauses of the Illinois clean energy bill do indeed need external partners, and you have practical experience from Ohio—" Jack analyzed immediately.

"But I don't think Pritzker is enough," Mu Xin interrupted him again.

"Pritzker is the Governor of Illinois. He can give me access to one state, but the owner of the Trump Tower across from me can give me more than just one state."

"Mr. Mu, you are a Chinese citizen. Do you understand that?" Jack's voice was very serious.

"Of course I do. But think about it from the other side: precisely because everyone is watching him, he is actually less constrained by these things than any other politician."

"Barack Obama's foundation is afraid of being attacked by the Republican Party, so they dare not accept Chinese donations. Pritzker's campaign team is afraid of having old accounts dug up by opponents, so they need me to set up a community fund in the South Side as a token of allegiance."

"But Trump's opponents have already dug up every old account they could. Foreign donations, commercial conflicts of interest, private relationships—these have been used against Trump tens of thousands of times."

"He is completely immune to these things now. A Chinese investor running a business in Ohio? He can turn that into a thirty-second impromptu speech, and his supporters will applaud," Mu Xin spoke eloquently.

"Mr. Mu, do you know if there is someone in Trump's team specifically responsible for large donations?" Jack asked.

"Of course I don't, but you should," Mu Xin laughed.

"I do," Jack said. "The problem is, his people won't sit down for coffee with a Chinese citizen unless that Chinese citizen has a way to make them aware of his existence first."

"Then help me find a way," Mu Xin said. "Addresses, phone numbers, even just one person in a charitable foundation, anything will do. Start investigating."

Jack didn't answer immediately, but the sound of typing had already started.

"Trump Tower is in Chicago," Jack said while typing, "but you'll have a hard time seeing him in person right now."

"I don't need him in person," Mu Xin interrupted. "I need someone who can get me into his circle."

"One more thing," Mu Xin continued. "Don't cut the line with Pritzker."

"Parks has arranged for an old friend of his to meet with me tomorrow morning. That person is on Pritzker's clean energy policy advisory team."

"I still need to see him. We'll pursue both lines simultaneously. Pritzker on the left, Trump on the right. One can give me the resources of a state; the other can give me the qualifications for a dialogue at the entire federal level."

"How are you going to pursue two lines at the same time by yourself?" Jack asked.

"Not by myself," Mu Xin said. "The Pritzker line relies on Parks; I'll mainly provide the money. What I need is for both lines to make progress."

Jack chuckled softly. "When I took you on as a client, you were just a college student who bought a Water Plant in the countryside of Ohio."

"Now you're asking me to investigate Pritzker and Trump for you at the same time. Are all you Chinese people this bold?"

"You don't like it?" Mu Xin countered.

"It's not that I don't like it," Jack said. "I just kind of regret not negotiating a higher price with you back then."