, Columnist
Trump Sticks to His Gut on China Tariffs. That’s Terrible.
He’s no expert, on politics or on trade. If his decisions are sound sometimes, that’s pure luck.
Presidents like Donald Trump and Xi Jinping don’t need to be experts on trade, but ideally all presidents would be experts at politics.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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The current trade flap with China is a great reminder of one of my favorite themes: why presidents should not be guided by what they think is right.
That certainly seems to be what’s going on here. Donald Trump’s commitment to tariffs, and more generally to zero-sum mercantilist thinking about trade, is very much personal, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Timothy L. O’Brien explains.