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The miscalculation was not only that Trump actually believed in tariffs, unlike abortion, immigration, trans whatever, where he was always malleable. It was that Trump’s career record displayed regular, bone headed conviction to make and stand by dumb decisions (which is why the business declared bankruptcy multiple times during the largest multi-decade property boom in history) principally around the casinos in Atlantic City. It’s relevant because that whole project (directly responsible for 3 out of 4 of his bankruptcies) was the result not only of great ambition but also of steadfastness in the face of many advisors, bankers, fellow developers, partners etc no doubt telling him he was making the wrong decision(s).
On this basis I assumed that while Trump would fold eventually on the tariffs, he would persevere until the economic situation deteriorated considerably. When thinking about why he caved before then, I have a few ideas. The first is that Trump thinks of himself as a genius, especially in real estate, but he does allow for the existence of other geniuses, and I think he does accept that at least in domain terms other people are smarter than him (Elon Musk with ‘computer’, Jamie Dimon in finance etc), and they were both against tariffs. The second is that he’s easily persuaded by flattery, which is a classic Chinese art form, and while Xi was publicly posturing I do think there has been some suggestion that the diplomatic approach was softer. Lastly, I think people Trump likes personally like MBS and Meloni who both deal a lot with the Chinese and are in many ways economically reliant on them told him the tariffs were bad, and Trump has something of a sense of loyalty, at least in certain situations, provided someone (eg Cohen) doesn’t cross him publicly.
You know, there was an episode of the Apprentice where he explained exactly how this worked. The companies which held the real estate never declared bankruptcy.
It wasn’t a genius move and he came unnecessarily close to actual ruin on a couple of occasions. You can disagree, but this one of very few areas where I personally know a couple of people involved in lending for commercial real estate in NYC and NJ at that time and they both say the same thing. (And one of them definitely voted for him, the other I would guess did).
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