Loading ...It seems that he’s used to getting his own way, either because he can bully his way to a settlement or because he is in such a strong position. He has a strong personality and total self-belief. Does anyone know of any situations where he had to back down, and how he reacted? For instance, there is no acceptance that his fast tracking of the vaccine was a disaster. He’s still blaming every aspect of the covid debacle on Biden, even though Trump appointed Fauci.
So now he is up against Putin, and also against Trump are the EU, NATO and Zlinky. He’s failed to end the war on day one, week one, month one or in the first quarter and truth be told, all he has achieved is to highlight the various players’ positions. Only a combined US/Russia operation can enforce anything, an unthinkable alliance; so how will Trump react to failure?
And he is up against Xi who, like Putin, has been there forever and again like Putin, is there for life. Trump has been and gone once and the Chinese made hay whilst Biden shone, and in a few years Trump will be gone again. Xi knows that the US needs imports for so many things right now, because he knows it takes years to rebuild a manufacturing base and train staff. And some things, like rare earths, are pretty much only available from China and Xi is already talking about export bans. What does China really need from the US? Nothing. All the blustering from Trump isn’t going to short cut building assembly lines. It’s not like speeding up the completion of a new tower block. Higher tariffs will hurt Americans much more than they will hurt Chinese. So how will Trump react to higher inflation, caused by his tariffs?
So much winning in the first few weeks. The low hanging fruit have been picked. Let’s hope he’s got strategies in place that are certainly not obvious at the moment. Otherwise he will need humility.