Analysts and commentators are driving themselves mad trying to discern a Trump strategy. What is the end game? It’s a great but pointless question.
All of the evidence points to incoherence and chaos. Maybe there isn’t a strategy, maybe the point is the chaos. There is no end game but it is a game. Without rules and no particular end in mind. The only winners are those who play the game and have fun along the way. Like young kids who enjoy torturing insects and small animals.
Maybe they all have daddy issues. J D Vance, in his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy talks about his mother who cycled through multiple boyfriends, husbands and partners. The young Vance learned how to please all of them, learning that a quiet life - if not a successful one - meant supporting the new daddy’s hobbies and passions. Always telling them they were great.
Perhaps the simplest explanation of Vance’s slavish adoration of Trump is that the President is just the latest in a long line of damaged daddies.
Trump’s daddy left behind a lot of money. Maybe Trump has been driven mad by the repeated number of times he has squandered his inheritance via bankruptcies. But now, as President, he is finally making serious money. Maybe Trump only blinked on the nuclear version of his tariff war when his personal holdings of US Treasury bonds were plummeting in value.
Trump’s history of bankruptcy causes some economists to develop a nervous tic. Trump’s approach to everything is to bulldoze through constraints. Bully and destroy enemies. Including a default on corporate debts if they threaten a problem. Running a casino into Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a singular business achievement.
What if Trump starts to look at US government debt in the same way he reneged on his corporate debts?
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