For what it’s worth, both can be true. An economy can be both strong and precarious, such as many world markets in the 1920’s right before the great depression caused the economic collapse of the west.

The tariffs thing though is a joke. Not to the people who will be hurt by it, of course, but the idea that it will accomplish anything meaningful. It’s just a scapegoat tactic to blame foreign powers for a weakening dollar.

Fascist dichotomy: the “others” are both strong and weak at the same time.

Just like immigrants are both “lazy” and “taking all the jobs” at the same time.

I get your point, Western propaganda can’t make up its mind about if they’re strong or weak.
But it’s not really a funny joke because economic instability isn’t mutually exclusive with outcompeting, so the Schrodinger doesn’t really apply.