World War Z author Max Brooks went off on a nonsensical hypothetical tangent on HBO’s Friday episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. In the context of a larger conversation about the need to keep Chinese fingerprints off of critical infrastructure, Brooks mused that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping could blackmail President Donald Trump over Taiwan in order to avoid more plane crashes like the nation witnessed earlier this week at Reagan National Airport.
Brooks, who is also a fellow at West Point’s Modern War Institute, began by making the more reasonable argument that the U.S. learned the wrong lesson from Operation Desert Storm, “This goes back to a point in history called Desert Storm. In 1991 we fought a war and annihilated the world's fifth largest army in 100 hours… we wiped them out on CNN, and that was on purpose that we let the press embed because we thought we were teaching deterrence. We thought we were teaching the world, if you mess with America on the battlefield, we will annihilate you. What we were teaching our enemies was asymmetry, right?”
Tying the lesson to China and today, Brooks moved to shakier ground as he blamed Ronald Reagan, although not by name, for opening the door to the Chinese threat, “The idea that okay, if you're going to mess with America, don't use bullets and bombs because they are way ahead of us. Use alternative means. Cyber is one of them, and they are ahead. You can see a scenario right now because they weaponized the private sector in a way the Soviets never could because they were communist, and in the 1980s we deregulated the private sector.”
China hacks the public sector all the time as well, so that makes no sense, but Brooks was just getting started. He continued, “So, we talk about this plane crash right now. It's a perfect scenario. Xi Jinping calls Donald Trump and says hey, 'we'd like to invest a trillion dollars in your meme coins if you privatize the FAA.'”
Brooks then brought out his Trump impression, “The next day Trump makes a speech and says, ‘Government is inefficient. We are not going to do it. My good friend Elon. He’s got AirX, AirX’s going to take over all the air traffic control.’”
Privatized air traffic control, which Trump mused about in his first term, is not some radical idea. For example, Canada instituted it in 1996, and the world is still spinning. Still, Brooks imagined a world where, “a year from now, once Chinese spyware and worms are planted and all their chips are implanted in our aircraft, China is going to invade Taiwan. Then they call Donald Trump again like a Mafia don and say 'remember that plane crash? It would be a shame if another thousand planes all fell out of the sky, so back the hell off Taiwan.' And he will. That's how asymmetry works.”
First of all, the odds China attempts to invade Taiwan in 2026 are basically zero. Second, what is Brooks talking about when he goes on about worms and chips being “implanted in our aircraft”? Is it just part of a partisan desire to attack Trump and Musk? Because the airline companies are already part of the private sector.
Here is a transcript for the January 31 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
1/31/2025
10:27 PM ET
MAX BROOKS: This goes back to a point in history called Desert Storm. In 1991 we fought a war and annihilated the world's fifth largest army in 100 hours.
BILL MAHER: You're talking about Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
BROOKS: Iraq, yeah, we wiped them out on CNN, and that was on purpose that we let the press embed because we thought we were teaching deterrence. We thought we were teaching the world, if you mess with America on the battlefield, we will annihilate you. What we were teaching our enemies was asymmetry, right?
The idea that okay, if you're going to mess with America, don't use bullets and bombs because they are way ahead of us. Use alternative means. Cyber is one of them, and they are ahead. You can see a scenario right now because they weaponized the private sector in a way the Soviets never could because they were communist and in the 1980s, we deregulated the private sector.
So, we talk about this plane crash right now. It's a perfect scenario. Xi Jinping calls Donald Trump and says hey, "we'd like to invest a trillion dollars in your meme coins if you privatize the FAA."
The next day Trump makes a speech and says, [TRUMP VOICE] “Government is inefficient. We are not going to do it. My good friend Elon. He’s got AirX, AirX’s going to take over all the air traffic control.”
[NORMAL VOICE] Flash forward a year from now, once Chinese spyware and worms are planted and all their chips are implanted in our aircraft, China is going to invade Taiwan.
Then they call Donald Trump again like a Mafia don and say “remember that plane crash? It would be a shame if another thousand planes all fell out of the sky so back the hell off Taiwan.” And he will. That's how asymmetry works.
