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Re:Trump Hits China With Stiff Trade Measures
by fny on Thursday March 22, 2018 @11:54PM
(#16654953)
Trump isn't stupid unless you narrowly define intelligence as an IQ test.
I'm in the many intelligences camp: to me, emotional, academic, and athletic intelligence are very real consequences of a lifetime spent in different domains. To me Trump has spent his entire lifetime building and selling himself as a brand. The substance never mattered. He just knows how to make people want to buy "Trump".
From my perspective, his success in that realm is genius.
"I took on China and negotiated a new deal. Sure, it was painful at first, but it brought them to the table, and now we're much better off. American factories are open again."
I have a sneaking suspicion Trump doesn't care if he wins re-election or not and could give a crap if tariffs lead to recession. It plays into his narrative and image well, and that's all he really cares about. If he were smart, he would play a card that Dan Carlin over at hardcore history hypothesized: The 1-term president. Basically, it can be summed up as: "I'm going to shake this system so far to the core, I may only be a 1-term president, but I don't care! It must be done." I think he much prefers the billionaire lifestyle to a presidential one anyways. He hates living in the "shabby" white house.