Trump’s actions are rational, if, and there is a big fat “if”, when you consider his background.
He is a businessman and wants to make deals. First of all that makes him unable to mentally comprehend the complexity of dealing unilaterally. So he just scoffs at it.
The second thing is that he has no interest in strategical planning. It’s “learning” by doing. The main problem with this approach is that the adversaries in the long run will smoke him out.
The third thing is that the corruption, which is somewhat tolerated in the world of extremely rich businessmen, doesn’t look so good when you are elected to be the spokesman of the people.
The fourth thing is that the regime of tariff he is trying to impose will backfire. I know he is probably deploying these tariffs as a means of tactical advantage, but let’s for once be honest, it doesn’t work that way in world politics. We are the ones who by the end of the day will suffer the consequences.
The fifth thing is that his unpredictability is more of an advantage to Russia and China than to ourselves. We have to ask ourselves if letting those countries in will benefit us or the western world on a whole.
The sixth thing is that accepting gifts from an antisemitic state like Qatar, makes one wonder about his stance on Israel.
The seventh thing is that I can understand why Elon Musk is out in the cold. There’s no room for extremely intelligent people around this administration, at least not those who have the ability to see the broader picture.