Why tariffs? Because Trump thinks America's trading partners are pickpockets who must be punished
Donald Trump's latest tariff war emerges from a decades-long personal belief that America's trading partners are "pickpockets" who must be punished, rather than from conventional economic strategy.
As Bloomberg's Timothy L. O'Brien explains, searching for rational policy goals in Trump's tariffs misses the point entirely. The driving force is revenge, not economics. "His primary aim is to address his grievances with the world, not to craft substantive or even rational public policy," O'Brien writes. Trump has harbored these resentments about trade for decades, viewing America's closest allies as thieves who need to be taught a lesson.
Rather than careful economic analysis, Trump personally created the tariff formula just hours before announcement. The result targeted unlikely threats like Cambodia and Thailand, while bizarrely including uninhabited Antarctic islands. When markets plunged $5.4 trillion in two days, Trump remained unmoved, posting golf videos on social media.
Even his own White House team acknowledges this is pure Trump unleashed. "He's at the peak of just not giving a f— anymore," one official told The Washington Post.
"I imagine this trade war will get worse before it gets better," O'Brien concludes, "simply because Trump has spent decades allowing his own house to burn down rather than admit he was wrong."
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# ...pure Trump unleashed.
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He's a wannabe Mob Boss.
These tariffs are *extortion*, pure and simple:
"Wanna do business with me? Well, it's gonna cost ya, see?"
Plus, he gets to inflict pain on those Americans who oppose him.
Of course, his own cult gets hurt, too, but why should he GAF? He *already* got their votes, and that's all he needed them for. Now that he is back in office,, he **will** commit all manner of fuckery to make sure he *stays* there.
Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he kicks out Shady Vance and names Jr. as his veep... then proclaims himself to be King Donald the Magnificent.
Josh Marshall at TPM also summed it up nicely: in a normal business agreement each side profits, but Trump is pure zero-sum-game, so he isn't winning unless the other side is losing. The US has still profited when other countries enact their own tariffs, because by keeping our markets open we act as custodians of the world market and everyone wants to do business here-- the US Dollar is the de facto world reserve currency. Trump and some of his advisors think the new tariffs will rebuild US manufacturing, maybe so, but other countries will not stand for being arbitrarily punished forever, they will find a way out at the first chance, they may cut a short term deal with Trump but that's just to buy time while looking for other options.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wtaf-is-going-on-in-search-of-the-plan-behind-trumps-global-economic-crisis/sharetoken/8abbc6ca-2447-4a56-ad97-541a2dcfbfec