Coach Jeremy Lin / TikTok Bias / Grammy Wins
This week’s issue covers a range of developments across politics, business, and culture.
The Rebel Yellow #27
This week’s issue covers a range of developments across politics, business, and culture. China has responded to Trump’s new tariffs with countermeasures targeting key U.S. industries, while new research examines potential bias in TikTok’s algorithm. Bill Maher weighs in on how Democrats discuss China, and Jeremy Lin takes on a new role at NBA All-Star Weekend.
On the culture front, Sumo makes its New York premiere, and we highlight recent Grammy winners along with tributes to notable figures who have passed.
How China is retaliating against Trump’s tariffs
China unveiled multiple countermeasures on Tuesday, immediately after new U.S. tariffs on its imports took effect. This marks the latest development in an escalating trade dispute that began with President Donald Trump’s weekend announcement of broad tariffs targeting multiple trading partners.
Driving the news
Trump on Saturday ordered a 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the U.S., citing Beijing’s alleged failure to stem the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the U.S., along with concerns about China’s growing trade surplus. The measures took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
Within minutes of the U.S. tariffs taking effect, China’s Finance Ministry announced its response: targeted levies on specific American goods, along with additional measures affecting U.S. companies and critical mineral exports.
A multi-faceted response
China’s State Council Tariff Commission detailed two tiers of counter-tariffs:
15% duties on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG)
10% duties on U.S. crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine automobiles
These tariffs are set to begin on Feb. 10, creating a window for potential negotiations. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday that a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping “is being scheduled and will happen very soon.”
In a statement, the State Council Tariff Commission emphasized that the U.S.’ “unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” adding that such actions damage normal economic cooperation between the two nations.
Economic impact
Initial analysis of trade data suggests China’s counter-tariffs may have limited broad economic impact while targeting specific sectors strategically. U.S. natural gas exports to China represented just 2.3% of total American LNG exports in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while Chinese imports of U.S. crude oil accounted for only 1.7% of its total oil imports in the previous year, or worth about $6 billion, as per Reuters.
The automotive sector, however, appears particularly vulnerable to the new measures. With fewer than 110,000 vehicles imported from the U.S. last year, the impact may seem modest, but several key market segments are facing disruption. GM’s planned introduction of the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon to the Chinese market could face significant headwinds, while Ford’s existing exports of the Mustang and F-150 Raptor may see reduced competitiveness. Additionally, Tesla’s future plans for Cybertruck sales in China could be complicated by the new 10% electric truck tariff.
Strategic export controls
China simultaneously announced immediate export restrictions on critical minerals essential for high-tech manufacturing and designated as critical by the U.S. Geological Survey. These include bismuth, indium, molybdenum, tellurium and tungsten.
The controls expand upon similar restrictions China placed on gallium exports in December 2023, highlighting Beijing’s strategic leverage in the critical minerals supply chain. “We depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others,” said Philip Luck, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former State Department official, AP News noted. “They could put some significant harm on our economy.”
Regulatory actions
The Chinese government intensified pressure on U.S. companies Tuesday through multiple regulatory channels. The State Administration for Market Regulation announced the launch of an antitrust investigation into Google, though the tech giant already maintains limited operations in China after its 2010 market exit.
In a parallel move, the Commerce Ministry expanded its unreliable entities list to include two prominent American companies. PVH Group, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, faces potential restrictions following an investigation into what Chinese authorities described as “improper Xinjiang-related behavior” regarding cotton sourcing. The ministry also targeted Illumina, a biotechnology firm competing directly with Chinese gene-sequencing company BGI. Companies placed on this list could face significant constraints on their ability to conduct business in China, including restrictions on import-export activities and new investments.
Market response
Financial markets reacted to Tuesday’s developments:
Crude oil prices declined 2%
The U.S. dollar strengthened against the Chinese yuan
Global currencies including the euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Mexican peso weakened
Stock markets showed volatility, with particular pressure on companies with significant Chinese exposure
The big picture
The trade dispute occurs against a backdrop of wider international trade tensions. Over the weekend, Trump had announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which were subsequently paused for 30 days after both countries agreed to specific border security measures. Canada committed to deploying new technology and personnel along its U.S. border and launching cooperative efforts to fight organized crime, fentanyl smuggling and money laundering. Meanwhile, Mexico agreed to reinforce its northern border by shifting 10,000 National Guard members there to stem illegal migration and drug trafficking.
The Peterson Institute for Economic Affairs estimates the tariffs on Chinese goods could shrink the U.S. economy by $55 billion and China’s economy by $128 billion. Separately, it projects the tariffs on Mexico and Canada could have an even larger impact: potentially wiping $200 billion off the U.S. economy over the next four years, reducing Canada’s economy by $100 billion, and shrinking Mexico’s economy by 2%.
Fighting fentanyl
The fentanyl issue remains a central point of contention, with China maintaining that the U.S. must address its domestic drug crisis rather than impose tariffs. While the U.S. records approximately 70,000 fentanyl-related overdose deaths annually, China insists it has implemented strict controls, with its Ministry of Public Security reporting no U.S. seizures of fentanyl precursors originating from China since Beijing began taking legal action.
John Coyne, director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said Beijing has the capability but perhaps not the will to address U.S. concerns. “The truth is that if Xi Jinping and the CCP wanted to end the flow of precursors and synthetic opioids to the U.S., they can most certainly do so,” he told the Washington Post. “The CCP operate probably the most sophisticated surveillance of their population of any population in the history of humankind. So if they wanted to stop that flow, they could.”
TikTok’s algorithm shows bias in both political content and CCP-related coverage, studies find
Recent research reveals that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm exhibits significant biases in both its distribution of U.S. political content and its handling of Chinese government-related topics, raising fresh concerns about the platform’s influence on public opinion and electoral discourse.
Skewing Republican in 2024 election
A preprint study by researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi found that TikTok’s algorithm favored Republican-aligned content during the 2024 U.S. presidential election period. The research, which analyzed approximately 394,000 videos across three politically diverse states between April 30 and Nov. 11, 2024, discovered that GOP-seeded accounts received 11.8% more party-aligned recommendations compared to Democratic-seeded accounts.
The study revealed several key patterns:
Democratic-leaning accounts were exposed to roughly 7.5% more opposite-party content than their Republican counterparts
Negative partisanship content was particularly prevalent, with videos criticizing opposing parties being 1.78 times more likely to be recommended
Donald Trump’s official TikTok channel reached Democratic-conditioned accounts 26.9% of the time, while Kamala Harris’ videos were recommended to Republican-conditioned accounts only 15.3% of the time
Systematic bias in China content
A separate study published in Frontiers in Social Psychology investigated TikTok’s handling of content related to the Chinese government and found systematic differences in how the platform presents that content compared to other social media platforms.
The paper, a collaboration between researchers at Rutgers University and the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), revealed that TikTok searches yielded significantly less content critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) compared to Instagram and YouTube. For example, only 2.5% of search results for “Uyghur” on TikTok were coded as anti-CCP, compared to 50% on Instagram and 54% on YouTube.
The study also found a striking disconnect between user engagement and content distribution on TikTok:
Users engaged with anti-CCP content nearly four times more than with pro-CCP content.
Despite this engagement pattern, TikTok’s algorithm produced nearly three times as much pro-CCP content.
Higher TikTok usage correlated with more favorable views of China’s human rights record.
Broader implications
Both studies highlight concerns about TikTok’s potential influence on public opinion and democratic discourse. The platform, which boasts over 170 million users in the U.S. alone, has become a significant source of news, particularly among younger demographics.
The findings suggest that TikTok’s algorithm may be shaped by factors beyond typical commercial considerations. While the studies cannot definitively prove intentional manipulation, they reveal patterns that differ significantly from other major social media platforms.
Future research directions
The NYU Abu Dhabi researchers outline several key directions for future research: conducting longitudinal studies beyond election periods, combining automated experiments with real user data, analyzing visual content alongside transcripts and investigating misinformation spread specifically related to the 2024 elections. They also emphasize the importance of comparative studies across different social media platforms to better understand TikTok-specific effects.
Meanwhile, the Rutgers and NCRI researchers emphasize an urgent need for greater transparency in social media algorithms and call for developing robust methods to detect algorithmic manipulation. They argue that future research should prioritize ways to identify when platforms suppress information and undermine free expression, particularly in the context of authoritarian influence on democratic values.
Bill Maher slams Dems for avoiding tough conversations about Beijing
During a recent episode of HBO's "Real Time," host Bill Maher launched a pointed critique of the left's stance on China. The 69-year-old comedian, who identifies as politically unaffiliated, argued that China has become "the new Islam" in political discourse, with liberals purportedly shying away from criticizing the country's human rights record and technological advancements.
The lab leak theory and self-censorship
Maher's central argument is that an excessive focus on race and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) within the left has created an environment where legitimate concerns about China are stifled for fear of appearing racist. He pointed to the initial dismissal of the COVID-19 lab leak theory as a prime example. "We couldn't look into the origins of COVID being from the lab … because the New York Times said to even look into that is racist," Maher stated.
This, according to Maher, is symptomatic of a broader problem: "China's like the new Islam. We can't be honest about them because they're not white." He argues that this reluctance to acknowledge China's problematic actions, from its human rights abuses to its aggressive technological advancements, stems from a misguided sense of political correctness.
“And China, OK, I'm sorry, kids, they do some bad things, China,” he added. “And we should just recognize that."
"Guilty honkies assuaging their guilt”
Maher's guests largely echoed his sentiments. Author Max Brooks criticized what he called "guilty honkies" on the left who are "only interested in assuaging their guilt," suggesting that this guilt prevents honest conversations about China. British writer Dan Jones argued that this ideological framework "hamstrings you in terms of thinking," preventing a clear-eyed assessment of the Chinese government's actions and intentions.
Brooks offered a solution: "The good news about this country [is that] we have people of every ethnicity. If you want to take on … the Chinese Communist Party, start with Chinese Americans who fled China … they'll have honest conversations, and they're much American as all of us and they don't have guilty honkiness."
Democrats who do speak out
Despite Maher’s claims, many Democratic leaders have taken firm stances against China. Former President Joe Biden has labeled China as America’s primary geopolitical competitor, enforcing tariffs, restricting semiconductor exports and strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific region. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-11), who has consistently condemned China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, even visited Taiwan in 2022 despite threats from Beijing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has consistently backed policies countering China’s influence, including human rights sanctions related to the Uyghur genocide and Hong Kong’s democratic erosion.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has also spoken forcefully on China, reaffirming U.S. commitments to Taiwan and criticizing Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. However, she has framed U.S.-China relations as "not about decoupling — it is about de-risking," aligning with more diplomatic approaches within the Democratic Party. Sen. Andy Kim (D, N.J.), who served as a member of the House Select Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition, similarly advocates for balanced engagement, warning against Cold War-style rhetoric that could impede diplomatic efforts.
Public opinion: A partisan divide
Recent Pew Research Center data reveals stark partisan differences in views on China. While 81% of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of China, Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to view China as an enemy rather than a competitor. According to the 2024 Pew survey, 68% of conservative Republicans have a very unfavorable opinion of China, compared to 43% of moderate and liberal Republicans. In contrast, only 27% of liberal Democrats and 32% of moderate and conservative Democrats express a very unfavorable view of China.
When asked whether China’s influence in the world has been getting stronger, 83% of conservative Republicans agreed, compared to 68% of moderate and liberal Republicans, and about 69% of Democrats across ideological lines. The partisan divide extends to views on China’s economic impact: 73% of Republicans say China has a negative influence on the U.S. economy, compared to 52% of Democrats.
Oversimplifying a complex relationship
In a Sept 2024 interview with Hudson Institute, Sen. Kim expressed concerns about oversimplifying the U.S.-China relationship, noting: "I am worried about the vocabulary that it is creating on Capitol Hill that is overly simplifying what is the most complex bilateral relationship in the world, that I think is going to shape so much of what happens over the next 50 years."
Sen. Kim also warned about the dangers of harsh rhetoric surrounding China, particularly when it spills over into anti-Asian sentiment. He pointed out: "Yes, we do not want spy balloons flying over sovereign airspace of the United States. But some of the rhetoric that was coming out about that — I mean, there was a chairman of a committee that was saying, ‘Maybe it's filled with a biological weapon.’ Like, that is deeply dangerous to say things like that and ratchet up that kind of tension."
Chandrika Tandon wins 1st Grammy for album with collaborators Eru Matsumoto and Wouter Kellerman
Indian American vocalist Chandrika Tandon, Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto and South African flautist Wouter Kellerman claimed a Grammy Award for their collaborative album, “Triveni,” at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. The trio won in the best new age, ambient, or chant album category.
“Triveni” is a meditative journey that seamlessly blends ancient mantras with the soothing sounds of flute and cello. Tandon, a renowned philanthropist and business leader, has been producing music for years, fusing Sanskrit chants with Western musical traditions. During their acceptance speech, Tandon expressed gratitude for the recognition, stating, “Music is love, music is light and music is laughter. Let’s all be surrounded by love, light and laughter.”
This marks Matsumoto’s second Grammy win, following her 2022 victory for best classical solo vocal album. “I'm so happy right now; thank you so much everyone who believed in this, in this album and project,” she said. “This project was born out of our deep passion to heal ourselves and transform ourselves with the power of music.”
Kellerman, a three-time Grammy winner, praised his collaborators in an interview with News24: “Eru’s mastery of the cello and her emotional depth bring such richness to the music, while Chandrika’s soulful voice anchors the compositions.”
Jeremy Lin comes back to the NBA … but not in the way you think!
Basketball star Jeremy Lin is set to return to the NBA stage — not as a player, but as a coach. The NBA announced Monday that Lin, who currently plays for the New Taipei Kings, will lead Team G League in the Castrol Rising Stars mini-tournament at the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco. He joins Golden State Warriors legends Tim Hardaway Sr., Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond as honorary coaches for the event, which features 28 top young players from the NBA and G League. “See you soon in the Bay,” Lin wrote on Instagram, acknowledging his return to Chase Center, the home of the Warriors, where he briefly played in the 2010-11 season.
The Rising Stars competition, set for February 14, will follow a mini-tournament format, with four teams vying for a spot in the NBA All-Star Game on February 16. Lin’s Team G League will compete against squads comprising NBA rookies and sophomores in fast-paced matchups where the first team to reach a target score advances. While Lin has been away from the NBA for nearly six years, his role in this high-profile event underscores his continued influence in basketball. Before heading to San Francisco, Lin will play for the Kings in an East Asia Super League game on February 12 against the Meralco Bolts, as his team fights for a top spot in Group B.
"Sumo" brings Japan’s national sport to the stage in New York premiere
Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Public Theater are set to bring the intense world of sumo wrestling to the stage with the New York premiere of Lisa Sanaye Dring’s “Sumo” this month. Directed by Obie Award winner Ralph B. Peña, the play delves into the lives of six wrestlers navigating tradition, ambition, and personal demons within an elite sumo training facility in Tokyo. The cast features Kris Bona, Red Concepción, Michael Hisamoto, Ahmad Kamal, Earl T. Kim, David Shih, Scott Keiji Takeda, Paco Tolson and Viet Vo, with live taiko drumming by Shih-Wei Wu.
In anticipation of the play's opening at the Anspacher Theater on Feb. 20 and its official opening on March 5, The Rebel Yellow spoke with the creative team about the process of bringing sumo to the stage and the powerful themes of the play.
Lisa Sanaye Dring, Playwright
Q: What inspired you to write “Sumo,” and what was your journey like in researching and crafting this story?
A: I saw sumo in Japan before I even considered myself a writer, and I was so taken by the sport and its beauty. It feels completely different from any sport I know of in the States — it has ritual, history and honor embedded into every layer, from training to tournaments. When I saw it, I was going through a moment of deep grief, and in many ways, it woke me up. The sport was so filled with energy and life that it connected me to an awareness of myself as part of a whole. In that way, it is very much a ritual.
Researching and crafting the story has been a whole thing! I read books, talked to wrestlers and watched documentaries, but I learned so much about this from being in the rehearsal room and collectively learning with our creative team. James Yaegashi, our cultural consultant, has been essential in guiding us. … I wrote this play partially to understand and connect more deeply with masculinity. And it’s not the writing that did that for me, but being around these incredible artists and actors, seeing how they share their humanity with the piece.
Q: The play explores themes of identity, belonging and cultural clashes. How did your own experiences influence the development of these themes in the play?
A: Of course, I'm all over this play! I think, in our modern American society, alienation is a part of associating with any identity — so while this show is about belonging, it is also about that line that exists between belonging and not belonging, and how we all walk that tightrope of a line constantly. I live with a lot of different cultural identities inside me, but it is really beautiful to connect with this Japanese story and embed myself into the culture in this deep way. I am hafu Yonsei and that half of my family was in many ways the only family I knew.
Q: What message or experience do you hope audiences take away from "Sumo" after watching it?
A: That is a tricky question! I hope that the text and production is strong enough that people leave the theater with their own unique takeaways. As a writer, I want to leave space for the audience's interpretation — if I held too tightly onto its meaning, or could say it succinctly, in some ways I wouldn't need a whole play to talk about what we are talking about. That being said, I hope that people leave the theater feeling more alive.
Ralph B. Peña, Director
Q: What drew you to Lisa Sanaye Dring's "Sumo," and what resonated with you most about the story?
A: Initially, I was challenged by the complexity of the story. It was multi-layered with the physical aspects of the sport and the spiritual origins of sumo. Lisa has written a story that contains both of these elements simultaneously, and I had no idea how this was even possible to do on stage. That was what first drew me to “Sumo.” Once I accepted the challenge and took a deep dive into the world of sumo, I was struck by the deeply human characters Lisa created and how much I cared about each one of them. It’s rare to find a play that gives each of its characters a clear and compelling arc. That’s probably what resonates with me the most. “Sumo” is about flawed people doing their best to get as close to god-like as possible.
Q: What unique challenges and rewards did you encounter while directing a play that delves into the world of sumo, a sport not often explored in Western theater?
A: The biggest challenge in directing a play like “Sumo” is finding the physical language of the play. For one thing, you have to find actors who can inhabit these characters, not just in terms of body type, but more importantly, the physical requirements of sumo wrestling. We thought of using stylized movement for the fights, but that felt like a cop-out, so we asked our cast to train every day to learn how to lower their centers of gravity and slam into each other without ending up in the emergency room. This is no small task. We also had to be very mindful of honoring Japanese culture and representing this ancient sport as authentically as possible. We’re lucky to have James Yaegashi and Chelsea Pace collaborating on the fights.
There are many hurdles to scale, for sure, but there are also many rewards. The biggest for me is introducing the work of Lisa Sanaye Dring to New York audiences and bringing a play about sumo to the stage. No one has seen anything like this before.
James Yaegashi, Sumo Consultant and Co-Fight Director
Q: From your perspective, how does "Sumo" portray the sport and culture of sumo and what nuances do you hope audiences will gain a deeper understanding of through this production?
A: “Sumo” very effectively captures the life of men who are trying to make a life in sumo, which is the 国技 or "national art” of Japan. Sumo is no mere sport, but a way of life in which men sacrifice everything and dedicate themselves to sumo. They leave their family, eat, sleep, and train under the same roof with their fellow rikishi (wrestlers) — most of them for their entire career. The closest equivalent the Western experience has is that of a monk joining a monastery. This analogy is not far off, as sumo is also deeply tied to the mythology and spiritual practice of Shinto, the native Japanese religion. I think our production captures this uniquely Japanese world and the juxtaposition of cost/reward, joys/sorrows, community/loneliness that comes with it.
Audiences will see something they probably have never seen before, with large Asian men literally bumping up against each other on stage to become something larger than life. As the audience enters this world of sumo, I hope they come away with perhaps a different point of reference for thinking about the body, about strength, about masculinity, and about devotion.
Q: What were some of the key considerations and challenges in bringing the world of sumo to life on stage authentically and respectfully?
A: The biggest challenge for me is to lead the actors into inhabiting the lower part of their body — specifically, their 腹 (“hara”) or physical center. In the West, physical strength is often thought of as a reverse triangle, with a muscular upper body being the focus. In the East, however, strength is considered to dwell in one’s center and, thus, more of a regular triangle (the buddha statues are a good example). Visually, this is very clearly manifested in the difference between rikishi in Japan versus wrestlers who do sumo as a sport in the West. So, in order to get the actors to move more out of their lower body and approximate the physicality of rikishi in Õzumo (pinnacle of the national art of Japan), we dedicated a good portion of early rehearsal time for the actors to practice basic movements based on the manual published by the Japan Sumo Association.
We also spent an extensive time getting the actors used to physical fight “vocabulary” that is very different from Western stage combat physicality. We also adopted a practice of bowing into the rehearsal room when arriving and leaving the space to instill in the company a respect for space — like the sacredness of the “dohyo” in sumo. Another important aspect of my work has been to instill in the actors the sense of hierarchical relationships and the physical and spatial vocabulary that comes out of such relationships. Giving them a clear picture of the cultural “baseline” informs the dramatic choices they make in the story of when and how the norms are broken.
With a fascinating blend of physicality, culture and emotional depth, “Sumo” promises to be a theatrical experience like no other. Tickets are now available at PublicTheater.org.
In memoriam: Barbie Hsu, Lee Joo Shil and Kultida Woods
“Meteor Garden” star Barbie Hsu dies at 48
Renowned Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu, best known for her iconic role as Shancai in the 2001 drama "Meteor Garden," has died at the age of 48. Hsu, who was vacationing in Japan with her family during the Lunar New Year, succumbed to pneumonia triggered by influenza. Her younger sister, Dee Hsu, confirmed the news in a statement on Monday, without specifying where and when her sister died.
A household name in the Mandarin-speaking world, Barbie first gained international fame through "Meteor Garden," a series that captivated audiences across Asia. The drama, which spawned the popular boy band F4, solidified Barbie's status as a leading actress. Throughout her career, she starred in numerous popular dramas and films, including "Corner With Love" and "Summer's Desire." While she stepped away from acting in 2012, she continued to be a familiar face on reality television. She is survived by her South Korean husband, DJ Koo, and her two kids whom she shared with her ex-husband, Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei.
“Squid Game 2” actress Lee Joo Shil dies at 80
Veteran Korean actress Lee Joo Shil died on Feb. 2 at the age of 80 after battling stomach cancer since November 2022, her agency confirmed. Despite battling breast cancer in the 1990s, Lee Joo Shil persevered in her career and even earned a Ph.D. in Health Science from Wonkwang University in 2010.
Lee, who debuted in theater in 1964, gained widespread recognition for her roles in numerous films and television dramas, including “Train to Busan,” “The Uncanny Counter” and “It’s Beautiful Now.” Her most recent roles were in the KBS2 weekend drama “Beauty and Mr. Romantic” and Netflix’s “Squid Game 2.” Her death marks the loss of a talented and dedicated actress who left a significant impact on the Korean entertainment industry.
Tiger Woods’ mother, Kultida Woods, dies at 80
Kultida Woods, the mother of legendary golfer Tiger Woods, died on Feb. 4 at age 80. Woods announced the news on social media, without disclosing a cause or other details. “My Mom was a force of nature all her own, her spirit was simply undeniable,” he wrote. “She was my biggest fan, greatest supporter, without her none of my personal achievements would have been possible.”
Born in Thailand, Kultida met Earl Woods while he was stationed there in the U.S. Army. She moved to the United States in 1968 and played a crucial role in shaping Tiger’s life and career. She instilled in him a strong work ethic and a competitive spirit, often accompanying him to junior golf tournaments and cheering him on from the sidelines.