FRANCE 24’s Sharon Gaffney speaks to Scott Lucas, professor of US and International Politics at the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin, about the tariffs unveiled by Donald Trump. He says that Trump’s announcement on tariffs was filled with lies and distortions and it was the ‘dumbest and most economically illiterate speech I have ever heard’. #Trump #trade #tariffs
We need to stop belittling his actions here. He’s acting like a toddler but he’s doing it because he wants power.
These are actions totalitarian dictators take to flex their power.
Trump sees himself as king and will not stop unless he’s forced to stop.
Comparing him to a toddler, a crazy asshole, or anything other than a dictator excuses his actions.
Trump is trying to show the world that he is a powerful dictator.
He doesn’t care who he hurts or how the world responds. He only cares to secure power.
I did not mean the toddler thing as a insult, but as an analysis. I genuinely think he can only think in straight lines. Any complexity escapes him. While I agree on the dictator stuff, I do think when he implemented a tariff it’s because he thinks that it will either result in businesses setting up in America, or foreign companies paying. I think he thinks it is a genius move and that he has not thought through all of the possibilities. So although saying he thinks like a toddler like an insult, I didn’t mean it like that. And I will also point out there is a difference between saying he is acting like a toddler to saying he thinks like a toddler.