Trump is certainly not a politician, but he never said otherwise. All through his campaign he made it clear what he would do, he made it clear he would surround himself with like minded people, and he was clear the way he wanted to run America. You may not agree with him, but the American people voted for him knowing what his policies were. That’s democracy.

He made some misleading claims, such as he would end the war in the Ukraine within 24 hours of being elected. Trump believed that President Putin was his friend and would do almost whatever he asked. Putin didn’t see it that way. Donald Trump's special envoy, often called his "fixer", was made to wait eight hours to meet the Russian president and left Moscow a few hours later, seemingly as soon as the talks ended.

Worse, according to press reports, Putin was an hour late for his Tuesday call with Trump and seemingly unbothered by the fact that he had kept the American president waiting. The Russian leader was seen smirking and laughing off warnings about his tardiness as he met with members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs congress ahead of the call. Putin was making a point, and not very subtly.

The simple reality may well be that Putin isn’t concerned about America as long as they don’t get involved. Putin has no interest in occupying America, there is much more ‘low hanging fruit’ on his doorstep.

It’s simply business

It’s clear that major corporate companies were confident that Trumps policies would benefit them, but the stock markets are now putting a lot of doubt on this. Trump made it clear from the outset that he would bring what he considered to be experienced financial and businesspeople into his ‘cabinet’. People like Elon Musk. Americans may say Musk wasn’t elected, but Trump made it clear Musk would be by his side.

Right now, many Americans are showing their disapproval of what Musk is doing, but they shouldn’t be surprised. It was clear from the outset that Musk was going to be Trumps right hand man. In Europe Tesla sales slump 40% as Elon Musk backlash grows. According to Reuters, The S&P 500 has given up all gains recorded since Trump's November 5 election, and it is down nearly 3% as Trump pushes ahead on tariffs. Again, its important to stress that Trump made it clear that he loves tariffs. Obsessed as he is with tariffs, Trump calls tariffs “the greatest thing ever invented”, and “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”.

This is going to hurt Europe and will certainly hurt Portugal. To what level we don’t yet know as at the time of writing Trump has not revealed the level of tariffs, and who will be charged most. Europe, Canada, Mexico and China will, of course, strike back. It will be a trade war, but Trump says it’s going to work. The world’s stock markets, not politicians, will reveal whether this is true or not.

Trumps attitude towards Europe

Trump is not alone in thinking America first. Back in the 60’s, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke out very clearly that he thought the UK was asking too much of America, he stated his thoughts more clearly than that, but the upshot was that he didn’t think the UK should see America as their bankers.

Trumps views are nothing new, and perhaps they have some reason. Europe has developed a dependence on America, not just financially but especially NATO, and Europe has allowed their financial contributions to NATO to fall back, relying on America to supply more than their share. It’s a very difficult question, the reality is that America is a strong and powerful force, financially and in military terms.

The general European view seems to have been that Americas wealth and strength should make them available to be the Worlds policemen when needed. Many Presidents have supported that view and taken what might be considered a ‘moral’ view on how to use their wealth and military strength.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, while America was officially neutral supplied Britain with war material through the Lend-Lease Act signed into law on 11 March 1941, and deployed the U.S. military to fight alongside the UK. They sent 16,112,566 American military, 407,316 were killed and 671,278 wounded. Although we paid for most of the equipment through lend lease, there is no price you can put on lives.

In 1964 President Johnson asked the Wilson government to deploy British troops to Vietnam. Wilson refused. You may agree with Wilson or not, but America had only a few years earlier lost almost half a million American lives supporting the UK in WW2. President Lyndon B. Johnson thought that the UK would return the support America had give the UK only a few years earlier.

Making America great again

Donald Trump doesn’t see things that way, for him, America is a business proposition not the Worlds policemen. If there is a profit to be made for America, he will go for it. Otherwise, no. Again, I must stress, he has never made any secret of how he sees things. Trumps business view is that in any negotiation one wins and one loses. For him the idea of finding a middle ground where both sides gain isn’t in his playbook.

Europe and America see things differently

It’s probably fair to say that Europe tends to lean to the centre left of politics and spends vasty more on social support. American leans to the right politically and sees itself as the land of opportunity for those who work hard. Social support is far less, people are expected to work hard and support themselves. This is an ‘over simplistic’ way of seeing things, but its not far from the truth. America lives to work; Europeans work to live.

America rewards hard work and entrepreneurial skills. It doesn’t supply universal free health care which Europe sees as a basic right for its citizens. Trump wont change that, and he never said he would. Only Americans have the right to agree or otherwise.

Is Donald Trump a good businessman?

If Trump is going to run America as a business, how good is he at business. Opinions vary, but Jonathan Lipson, Harold E. Kohn Professor in the Beasley School of Law and a noted expert on bankruptcies reported Donald Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City lost more jobs and money than competitors’ casinos, while also going through more bankruptcies than any other major business in America.

But the American public knew all this, they know about his business record, but they decided that he was the right person to ‘Make America Great Again’. None of his policies have been made secret, with a few exceptions Trump will do what he said he will do, only time will tell if this brings the wealth and prosperity that the majority of Americans want.

Europe doesn’t think so, but the leadership of America isn’t for them to decide on. Only time will tell.

Author

Resident in Portugal for 50 years, publishing and writing about Portugal since 1977. Privileged to have seen, firsthand, Portugal progress from a dictatorship (1974) into a stable democracy. 

Paul Luckman