Trump is said to be very focused on his 'legacy' - what history will make of him.....
I don't think it is going to work out well for him.
Already his impulsive actions are having a very detrimental effect. I won't call them policies, because the term 'policy', implies that policies have been at least partially worked out and thought through, whereas in the Trump Administration, he has an ADHD / Autistic outburst of impulsive madness, and his henchman run around and try to explain what he meant, or outright lie to justify the idiot explosions of stupidity.
Government is not reality TV.
His team seem more and more like the people surrounding other dictatorial leaders - they are hand picked for total obedience and venality; in this case with no moral compass at all, and no intellectual background or experience, except in grasping money, and pleasing the boss. Any who present a different view than his are soon weeded out. Just look at John Bolton, and then, like him, they soon end up with a tame Justice Department persecution on their hands. The entire administration is about on the level as far as ethics and decency is concerned of Hitler's, or Pol Pot's, or Joseph Stalin's. I could have added others like Chairman Mao, but you already get the picture, and it is fair to say that Trump is nothing new in the history of terrible rulers and tyrants.
He has alienated the entire planet. Although I suppose I should say he has less alienated Putin, who is no doubt quite pleased at being offered a large chunk of neighbouring Ukraine's territory on a plate, of course, for no concessions. It is no surprise that Trump admires Putin. He has said he does, and he has similar tendencies as far as despotic decision making, gangsterism, and seizing the territory of neighbours is concerned.
The use of crazy tariff impositions and the making of unreasonable demands of friends and allies has had, and will have very serious implications for American relationships with countries which have always been its friends.
Take Canada for a start. It would have been hard to find a closer friend to America than Canada. They had sound two way trade relationship - similarly aligned economies - short on subsidies and dumping, and with comparable wage rates - so trade was mutually beneficial. But Trump's appalling behaviour towards his neighbour - imposing unreasonable tariffs and talking about 'taking over Canada', comes straight out of the School Bully playbook.
This has backfired on the States big time. Trade both ways is right down. The hostility of Canadians to Trump and the USA is palpable; outbound Canadian tourism to the US has collapsed, and US to Canada tourism is well down, but Canada has more than replaced its lost outbound business in goods to the USA, by cultivating China and other partners. That is NOT in America's interest. It was one of Trumps expressed policies, to weaken China. He hasn't. The Canadian trade ledger is unaffected overall. On the other hand, US whiskey exports are down by $52Bn - who knew the Canadians were so keen on Jim Beam!
BBC News article about US Canada Relations
Now, not satisfied with upturning many decades of mutually beneficial relations with Canada, Trump has declared an escalating tariff war with Europe over European leaders open expressions of surprise and disgust at threats to seize Greenland - a Danish protectorate of Denmark, whose ancestral people discovered and colonised it in the tenth century.
Trump's America First policies will result in an 'America With NO Friends' reality.
Only snivelling wretches like Starmer, will grovel at the Orange Bully's impulsive outbursts, rather then condemning them for what they are. I see other leaders coming out hard and strong. We need to tell him unmistakably, and loudly, that we will sever relations if he does what he threatens. We need to make it clear how damaging he has been to the respect and friendship our countries have shared for so long, and we need to be absolutely up for a tariff war with full and equal retaliation if he imposes ANY - and I mean, ANY, unjustified tariffs over our objections to his obnoxious personality and behaviour.
