The published book by Bob Woodward (one of Watergate’s journalists), regardless of his general interest, has some high moments.
First: On 7/10/2016 the Washington Post released a recording in which Trump made derogatory comments about women about their sexual advances.
The next day Trump’s “inner circle” met. Priebus announced that all donors were leaving the campaign. All Republican congressmen and senators, the same. Vice-presidential candidate Pence hesitated. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said it was all over. Rudy Giuliani, former prosecutor and mayor of New York agreed. And everyone, everyone argued that Trump should give up and the presidential candidate should be (the vice presidential candidate) Michael Pence and the vice president Condoleezza Rice (of the Bush administration).
The only one who objected? Bannon: “We were 20% behind in the polls; we are 4/5% and we will win. I am 100% sure. What is there to do? Apologize and continue. ”
Moral of the story: One man right makes the majority (right in terms of his chances of winning the campaign, not the rest, of course).
Second: Trump is obsessed with US trade deficits with Korea (South, of course), China, etc.
Hence it came out of the pacific agreement; finished with NAFTA; and imposed all kinds of tariffs. For example in iron and steel imports. And even though his advisers (with Cohn, former CEO of Goldman Sachs at the head) showed him in numbers that jobs created by protective tariffs in the iron and steel industry were more than lost in the downstream industries (automotive, etc.) that became less competitive.
Result? In vain. And the reason is simple. But that no Trump counselor has detected.
Subconsciously Trump considers a country analogous to a company. Hence deficit is loss. This is true in most cases except in the United States, where deficits do not necessarily increase foreign debt as the government can “make” what to pay: the dollar, the international reserve currency.
And thus making the US a paradigmatic example that, as Stuart Mill put it, the value in international trade is in imports, not exports: if we have to pay for ever cheaper products, we need to work less and less to live better and better.
Since when is shipping out good? Good is to consume products from outside. Export? A necessary evil (but never a desirable good), if (and only if) there is no other way to pay (for example to fabricate money…).
Third: Forty-four percent of Americans do not pay federal tax and (quoted by Mitt Romney) “live dependent on the government, see themselves as victims, think it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them, who are entitled to home, food, etc. and let the others pay. They simply do not take care of their lives. ” I ask readers: Do you know any similar countries?
Fourth: (Trump’s lawyers): “You have to be patient because the biggest punching bag in the world is the US president. From the front and (above all) from behind everyone likes to kick. The way to defeat them is not to sue them or pursue them. It is to produce. And so prove them wrong. ”
The Prince of Wales in high school was kicked in the corridor of his passing classmates for no reason. Why? They wished they could say in a few years that they had beaten the King of England…
It is also curious that the most powerful man on the planet also feels like the biggest punching bag. Fairly or unfairly. But remembering the proverb that the boys only send stones to the trees that bear fruit. Or the Japanese proverb that the protruding nail carries with the hammer on top. Food for thought. Or not?