{"id":5374,"date":"2026-08-26T17:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5374"},"modified":"2026-08-26T17:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:09:08","slug":"one-pathological-obsession-explains-trumps-trade-war-top-historian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5374","title":{"rendered":"One ‘pathological’ obsession explains Trump\u2019s trade war: top historian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump last weekend renewed a trade war against Canada. And according to one leading scholar, there is no rationale driving Trump\u2019s decision. Rather, the whole debacle is \u201cbased upon a misunderstanding of economics and a misunderstanding of politics\u201d fueled by Trump\u2019s \u201cpathological preoccupation\u201d with \u201cfraud and grift.\u201d This is according to renowned historian and authoritarian expert Timothy Snyder<\/u>, who took to social media on Wednesday to explain the mindset pushing Trump to blow up U.S.-Canada relations.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump is \u2018dissociating\u2019 as his \u2018downfall\u2019 nears: Nobel economist<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has made his entire career on the basis of fraud and grift,\u201d says Snyder. \u201cAs a result, he doesn\u2019t really believe in the normal play of markets. He doesn\u2019t understand that there might be legal exchanges or honest exchanges or exchanges where both parties actually profit, and not just one. And this is at the root of his misunderstanding of what a trade war is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply put, explains Snyder, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t understand what a trade deficit is. A trade deficit means that you buy something from another country, and they give you things that you want. It\u2019s a little bit like going to the grocery store. You have a trade deficit with your grocery store: you go there, you give them money, they give you things that you want or maybe even that you need. Now, you could decide in a moment of madness that you\u2019re angry with the grocery store \u2014 that you think they\u2019re just stealing your money. And you could say, I am so angry with you, grocery store, that I\u2019ve decided that I\u2019m now going to pay even more[.] That\u2019s the trade war with Canada in a nutshell: they sell us things that we want, things we use to build other things, things that we need, and now we\u2019re putting tariffs on them, which means all these things we want and need will be more expensive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many have laid out the potential harms done by Trump\u2019s trade war, according to Snyder, \u201cThe reason Mr. Trump thinks this makes sense is he doesn\u2019t understand markets. He doesn\u2019t understand economics. He never has. It simply has never occurred to him that there could be an exchange where both parties actually do well. As a result of this, he thinks that we\u2019re being ripped off. And this is his constant pathological preoccupation. Because he spent his entire life ripping people off, his main concern all the time is that somehow he is being ripped off.\u201d <\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Snyder suggests that there is a \u201cbasic political misunderstanding\u201d contributing to the problem: \u201cMr. Trump and the people around him have no understanding of patriotism. They have no understanding of sovereignty. They have no understanding of politics, which has to do with the rule of law or democracy or rights or any kind of responsibility. For them, politics is just one more grift. It’s just one more way of getting to the top, fooling other people, and making money. As a result, they don’t understand the notion of patriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Dairy farmer whines about mean Dems after admitting MAGA policies hurt her<\/a><\/p>\n

And because they lack this understanding, says Snyder, \u201cIt doesn’t occur to them that anybody else would. Now, this may seem like an advantage, but it’s actually, in certain critical moments, a disadvantage, because as they make trade war on Canada, their assumption is Canada is not real, it’s all fake, it will just fall apart, all we have to do is nudge it. And this is a big miscalculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, Snyder explains, \u201cCanada is full of people who understand that they’re Canadian. Canada is led by people who understand the basic existential interests of Canada. The trade war that the U.S. is prosecuting threatens the basic sovereignty of Canada and therefore will get a solid and reasonable response. So the US trade war against Canada is based on a political misunderstanding. It’s based on ignorance of the basic fact that some people do care about their country and that some people have a plan for their country, which is why the Americans will lose this trade war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump assumes that Canada will fold, says Snyder, \u201cbecause there’s no such thing as patriotism, no such thing as the rule of law \u2013 it’s all just a scam. But it isn’t for them. It’s also based on the assumption that everything will happen quickly, but it won’t. The Americans have an attention span of about 5 seconds. The Canadians have a plan. The Canadians will be patient. And the result of this is that not only will everybody lose, but the Americans will lose harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Ex-CIA officer reveals psychological profile US enemies have on Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump last weekend renewed a trade war against Canada. 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