"Turning the presidency into performance art": Sanctions expert on what Trump confuses about tariffs

[marmar]

"Turning the presidency into performance art": Sanctions expert on what Trump confuses about tariffs
Former State Department official Edward Fishman warns that Trump's strategy of global economic chaos will backfire

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published April 22, 2025 7:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) With all its spectacle and chaos, Donald Trump’s shock and awe strategy is both domestic and global. Domestically, Trump and his agents are targeting the American government and the country’s democratic norms, institutions, the rule of law, civil society, the Constitution, overall well-being and sense of normalcy. Trump is ruling as the country’s first elected autocrat; he is quickly acquiring much more corrupt power over all aspects of American life. The Germans have a word for this: “Gleichschaltung.”

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In an attempt to make better sense of the Trump administration’s shock and awe (and "shock therapy" ) approach to the United States and global political economy, the logic of the Trump global tariff spectacle, economic warfare in the 21st century and how these huge questions of global trade and economics impact the pocketbooks and wallets of everyday Americans, I recently spoke with Edward Fishman. He teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Fishman's new book is "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare," which has been called “masterful” by the Financial Times and “a compelling and dramatic narrative about the new shape of geopolitics” by the Wall Street Journal.

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What story are you seeing when you view Trump’s tariffs and larger economic shock and awe regime through your expert lenses? What is the larger narrative?

..... What’s unprecedented, though, is that Trump isn’t just targeting adversaries — he’s going after our traditional allies, too. He treats a trade deficit with Canada or Japan as just as dangerous as economic dependence on China. That’s a radically different worldview than past presidents held, and I think it’s out of step with how most Americans see the world. If Trump keeps going down that path, the consequences will be profound. It won’t just be China, Russia, and Iran trying to build workarounds to U.S. power — it will also be Europe, Japan, and other long-time partners. That would accelerate a decline in American economic influence far faster than anyone anticipated.

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Donald Trump introduced his global tariff regime in the form of a game show. The spectacle is central to the strategy and not secondary to it. What were you thinking as you watched the Trump “Liberation Day” tariff game show?

A big part of Trump’s political success is turning the presidency into performance art. That was clear in how he rolled out the tariffs — with a Rose Garden press conference and a giant poster of all the rates — as well as how he made the actual decisions. The initial 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, for instance, came out of an off-the-cuff remark to a reporter during a televised Oval Office session on his first day back.

It’s great television, but it’s not how sound economic policy gets made. It’s not how effective foreign policy gets done either. Publicly browbeating other governments almost always backfires. Foreign leaders have domestic politics too, and if they’re seen as capitulating to an overbearing U.S. president, they pay a price. This is why Trump’s targets abroad have often ended up politically stronger. Their people rally behind them when he attacks. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/04/22/turning-the-presidency-into-performance-art-sanctions-expert-on-what-confuses-about-tariffs/

[Aristus]

1. Performance art?

More like pro wrestling. The real down-market, low-rent 'will it play in Peoria?' kind of pro wrestling.

[mdbl]

2. "Turning the presidency into performance Fart"

[Martin68]

3. A much, much shorter list would be what Trump understands about tariffs.

[rickyhall]

4. Ever see Escape From L.A.?