While many–perhaps a majority, perhaps not–of Trump’s supporters are motivated primarily by their desire to “take their country back” from the uppity women, illegal immigrants, godless city dwellers, and panhandling minorities that have oppressed them for the last eight years, the other focus of his campaign has been his ability to fix the economy by renegotiating deals with China, Mexico, the rest of NATO, etc. He has given us very little information about how he plans to accomplish that other than to refer us to his history of screwing over people in his business. The question for the day, therefore, is how does he plan to “win” these renegotiations, and turn the world into Trump University writ large?
He can’t rely on deceiving the other world leaders, because he has already broadcast his willingness to lie at the drop of a hat, and they aren’t in any event the kind of feckless people who invested in his casinos or enrolled in Trump University. No, his plan has to be to put outcomes that were unthinkable to all previous Presidents on the table and hope that the other side blinks. In the case of trade, this means imposing illegal tariffs and engaging in mutually destructive trade wars; in other instances, it probably means threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
I won’t kid you; this could work in some circumstances, because he makes a credible madman. The implications of it, however, are frightening beyond belief, because someone is bound to stand up to him fairly early in the process, and then what? He will either have to follow through with his threat or lose face, and we know how strongly he feels about being humiliated.
Or, in other words, BOOM!