Deconstructing Trump’s tariff strategy! How does "The Art of the Deal" reveal his economic logic?

In the midst of the ongoing US-China trade war and global market volatility, US President Trump once again drew attention with a series of high-tariff policies. However, to understand the logic behind these decisions, one might not need an economics degree, but rather an old book from 1987 - The Art of the Deal. This book, signed by Trump but actually ghostwritten by journalist Tony Schwartz, not only details Trump's background and real estate deals but also contains his business and negotiation philosophy. Business Insider has uncovered seven insights from the book that might help us better understand Trump's tariff strategy. [The rest of the translation follows the same approach, maintaining the original structure and translating all text except for HTML tags and specific names/titles]

When announcing the tariff policy, he said: "Jobs and factories will return to our country with great momentum." Even when he later mentioned changes in the bond market, his insistence on "Main Street" rather than "Wall Street" was deeply rooted in his economic thinking.

(US Treasury Reveals Trump's New Tariff Policy: This is the First Step to "Restart American Manufacturing")

However, Trump's interest in other virtual currencies like Bitcoin also shows his interest beyond physical assets.

6. Criticize Media, but Also Know How to Use Media

In the book, Trump often criticizes the media for being unfair to him, and has even publicly written letters to challenge architectural critics. But at the same time, he understands that media exposure has great benefits for brand and reputation.

"From a business perspective, the benefits of being reported far outweigh the drawbacks," he wrote. This also explains why his tariff strategy, despite attracting massive criticism, still dominated the news pages. His press secretary even sarcastically said to reporters: "You clearly haven't read 'The Art of the Deal'?"

An Old Book that Sees Through the New Tariff Policy

Trump's tariff strategy may seem crazy and inconsistent, but looking at "The Art of the Deal", there is actually a consistent logic and style behind it. From "setting high goals and sticking to them", "making decisions by intuition", to "using media skillfully" and "focusing on the physical economy", his every move seems to have been written in the book long ago.

Perhaps, without an economics degree, we can still understand this former president's political operations and economic strategies from this book written nearly 40 years ago.