Such capability would be a source of immense geopolitical power, though it makes more sense for leveraging consessions out of small debtor nations like all the African and South American ones that China is investing infrastructure into. Kinda tricky to use though.

Cynicism isn’t helpful. The U.S. was a democracy and now that’s in jeopardy. To pretend that an imperfect democracy is equivalent to the electoral autocracy we seem to be headed for is disingenuous and betrays the many substantiative freedoms we enjoyed under the former.