Months before the last election, seeing that the Democratic Party had dug its own grave, Jeffrey Sachs sighed that Trump is “all over the map”. I liked the expression. Trump is more than merely “unpredictable”.
In polite company he is said to be “transactional”, meaning – I believe – that he conducts affairs of the state in the same manner as he would try to seal advantageous business deals. I don’t see him that way at all. I see him as a hunter.
There was a time when hunting was a bona-fide way of making a living. Consider, then, the hunter, his dog, the game he is pursuing, the weather, the supplies he must carry on his back, etc. If he is a peasant, he even has to reckon with the landlord’s game keepers. (In much of Europe, landlords used to lord it over all the continent’s vast forests.) The wind may turn, the scent may suddenly vanish, a blizzard may whip up, the dog may get his throat slit, a river may turn into a torrent… anything can happen.
Trump is definitely not that sort of a hunter. He is more like one who hunts from a helicopter. The helicopter’s instruments may be able to determine the location of a fox under the canopy, but they know very little about the fox’s habits. However, the helicopter can certainly adjust to changes of weather, and if the fox manages to disappear, the helicopter will simply return another day.
Trump has to balance between the forces that have brought him to power. To my knowledge these are mainly 1) the disaffected former “middle class”, “working class” or whatever-class most of his voters belong to 2) the Zionists 3) US oligarchs who, for whatever reason, do not consider themselves “liberal”. Disparate forces, in other words. Trump has to please them all, just as the hunter on the ground has to adjust to the weather, the surroundings, the quarry and the dog.
I am not apologizing for Trump, merely trying to explain why he is so “all over the map”, for instance in the matter of tariffs. Added to the multifarious challenges that face him, we find that neither he nor members of his team appear to know much about China, Russia, Ukraine or the rest of the world.
The “tariffs” were a complete disaster, for very, very many reasons. Backing down on the tariffs appears to have raised universal distrust even further. Even “the 90-day pause has done little to quell market fears.”
A person who holds the top job in a country that considers itself the top dog will tend to feel, more often than not, omnipotent. Even long after the “fall of Rome” delusions of grandeur will surely have haunted Rome’s top-job holders. I suspect that when Sir Keir Starmer sings in the shower, his favourite refrain will be: “Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves”, long after Britain has turned into a basket case.
Overestimating one’s strength is definitely a weakness in the hunter, one the quarry may take advantage of if he knows his persecutor.
Likewise, fooling your adversary might also be a smart move. I can’t imagine Trump singing, in the shower or elsewhere. But he simply loves signing decrees. So while everybody was wringing their hands about his tariffs, he quietly went and signed an “executive order” the aim of which is for the USA to rule the seas of the world in all perpetuity.
Alas, though Team Trump seems willing to admit that “unipolarity” has come to an end, the White House has not yet lost sight of it.