The President of the United States of America is burning bridges and destroying alliances across the globe. In case you were wondering, he doesn’t really care about trade or fairness of trade. He doesn’t care about steel, aluminum, or imported cars. He doesn’t care about the economy, national security, or a balance of trade. He really only cares about one thing.

As we’ve seen with his business “relationships” and his history of stiffing partners, vendors, and investors, he is really quite single-minded.

The other guy must lose.

That is his one and only goal. He doesn’t even care about winning. He just wants the other party to lose. And his definition of losing is quite fluid. It could mean he pays less than agreed upon. It could mean that at the last minute he breaks a deal that looked reasonable and settled. It could mean he buries the other person in legal garbage. He doesn’t really care about anything else.

Make the other guy hurt.

So what is he doing with his trade wars? Trying to make the other guy hurt. So what if he is hurting nations that have great strategic importance to us? What does it matter if he’s burning bridges with long time friends and allies? Why should he care if it hurts midwest farmers, autoworkers, the aircraft industry, or the country in general?

Again, he isn’t trying to accomplish something specific. In his sick and twisted mind, he thinks the only goal in life is making other people miserable. It doesn’t matter who. It doesn’t matter why. It doesn’t matter how. He just needs to feel like he wins by making the other guy lose.

It is a dangerous game and if the republicans in congress don’t do something to reign him in, our country may have to spend decades trying to recover.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/thoughts-on-trumps-attempted-trade-wars