From the article Second Coming, How to deal with Donald Trump by Malcolm Turnbull published in Australian Foreign Affairs October edition 2024:
"Trump has always been surrounded by yes men and sycophants – personalities like his attract them. The independent-minded either never join, don’t stay or get fired. But this time he knows the ropes. He believes the Washington official establishment – what he calls the “deep state” – frustrated his agenda in his first term. He won’t let that happen again, and he will have plenty of collaborators. Instead of wellmeaning people of real experience like his defence secretary, General Jim Mattis, and secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who did their best to provide “adult supervision” during Trump’s first term, there is an army of MAGA zealots determined to support Trump’s increasingly radical “conservative” agenda.....
Last time, Trump was determined to impose high tariffs to protect American industry, especially from China. In this he was supported by his advisers Peter Navarro and Robert Lighthizer, but most of his economic advisers – from Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin to National Economic Council director Gary Cohn to son-in-law Jared Kushner – knew the plan would be self-defeating. They were able to moderate and delay much of Trump’s agenda. Now he will have a team that is fully signed up to his vision....
Trump has promised an additional 60 per cent tariff on all Chinese imports, and an additional 10 per cent tariff on imports from all other countries. Apart from its obvious inflationary impacts, a unilateral tariff like this will provoke a response – just as his last round of tariff-setting did. Trump is foreshadowing not just a ramp-up of the existing trade war against China but a new trade war against trade itself...."
Read more here: https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/
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