The issue with the Americans is that they think & firmly believe that if their China policy, or really any foreign policy fails, it is not because the end goal is unrealistic and unattainable - it is because the current or past administration is doing it wrong.
Here lies the best example of the so-called American exceptionalism - that America can and will achieve anything it wants, and if it doesn't, it's because the government is doing it wrong, but not because America is not omnipotent, because in the eyes of the likes of Pompeo and John Bolton, America IS omnipotent.
No, it is not. It is also not the sole dominating superpower that it used to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the US is no longer the world's most powerful nation - it still is - the problem is that it's no longer THAT powerful such that it can do whatever it wants and gets away with it with no damage to itself.
That era is long gone - if there had been such an era at all.