He has a deficit in abstract thinking, so resource extraction (oil) and low-value commodity goods manufacturing and about as far as he goes, while he chases scientific research, knowledge industries, and long-horizon efforts out.

it doesn’t make sense to him that we should keep the beautiful parts of our country, beautiful, like Forest and national wildlife preserves, and make our money from culture, tech, finance, communication services, etc. while we buy oil and lumber from elsewhere.

The whole “China is taking advantage of us” thing is a hoot - the reason those factories are in china is because American management and corporate boards took great advantage of cheap labor and very intentfully moved production.