Textbook. His textbook. Art of the deal.
He's not unstable, just very aggressive. He did have a plan.
We can argue about the merits of his plan, but dismissing him and his advisors as stupid or insane is underestimating them.
He's not unstable, just very aggressive. He did have a plan.
We can argue about the merits of his plan, but dismissing him and his advisors as stupid or insane is underestimating them.
It ain't his. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Schwartz_(writer)
> We can argue about the merits of his plan, but dismissing him and his advisors as stupid or insane is underestimating them.
Pretending the man didn't repeatedly bankrupt his own companies and stiff his vendors is underestimating him. We've decades worth of knowledge about how "his plan" goes.
This is a retreat by Trump. It's him losing. It makes him look like a joke. Or, more correctly, more like a joke.
Trump desperately wants tariffs. He thinks they're free money. He has been saying this for years and still people desperately try to sane wash it into some masterful 4D chess. The only reason this laughable 90-day pause happened is because the US house of cards is on the precipice of absolute collapse, so Trump had to bow into Bessent's attempts to turn this into some sort of China containment.
So are all those factories coming back...or aren't they? Are tariffs going to replace income tax, or aren't they? Something something war with China. Just absolute insanity by a group of charlatans, self dealers and clowns who have no idea what they're doing.
I think there are two things at play here.
1) Narrow the gap between the wealthy and the rest: attempt to reduce the US public sector, backtrack on globalization, and enact policies to benefit the median American, not the mean American [1].
2) Prepare the US for possible conflict with China (maybe over Taiwan) and avoid supply chain disruption that would make Covid look mild.
I think both of these things are sensible positions to take.
When you look at it through this lens, it starts to have some logic to it. Again we can debate the merits and drawbacks of this strategy, but I think it's what is behind everything. Things like his stance on Panama start to fit into the picture when you look at it this way.
It is not the actions of someone stupid or insane.
Your lens needs cleaning.
> Prepare the US for possible conflict with China…
By pissing off every close ally we have?
This could absolutely be all about asserting dominance over China. It could be a great way to deter or blunt the threat of war. It might backfire horribly. We shall see.
He is stupid. You just have to listen to him speak to understand that. But he doesn't invent policy, he has people for that.
Like, listen to what Trump himself says to justify the pause-
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lmfosw5usb2f
Basically "everyone was saying this was really stupid -- getting "yipeee" -- so I paused it". Not "Haha now I've got them where I want 'em!"
These pauses and this chaos is literally the worst of both worlds. Christ, he would have done better either cancelling them or going full bore.
Congress needs to remove his ability to levy tariffs under his imaginary emergencies.