Trump has trademarked creating conflicts to solve

Trump wasted no time after returning to the White House, reigniting his favorite diplomatic farce: manufacturing crises just to claim credit for solving them. Barely two weeks in, he threatened trade wars with Canada and Mexico, the likes of which the world had never seen. His demand? That both countries take extraordinary measures to stop migrants and fentanyl from crossing into the US.

But anyone with the memory of a gnat would recognize this bluster for what it is. Trump has done this before. He spent the first 100 days of his first term threatening North Korea with “fire and fury” over its nuclear ambitions, only to pivot to exchanging love letters with Kim Jong-un. Meanwhile, North Korea not only continued testing nuclear weapons but expanded its arsenal. Even so, Trump basked in the illusion of diplomatic triumph. I commented on his farcical fecklessness in “Turns Out Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Is Just an Explosive Book about Him,” (January 5, 2018).

Canada and Mexico play Trump with empty concessions

So it’s no surprise that Canada and Mexico knew how to play Trump. Their leaders understood they could pacify him with meaningless concessions and idle promises. Sure enough, they charmed him like a snake charmer handling a defanged cobra.  He performed his usual theatrics about striking a “historic” trade deal to avert his war.

In fact, Trump walked away with the same commitments Canada and Mexico had already made in trade agreements with Biden. But there was even more to this manifest absurdity. After all, Trump raged against what he called the worst trade deal in history. But, perhaps due to creeping senility, he apparently forgot it was the same NAFTA deal he once hailed as the best after renegotiating it during his first term.

Canada merely agreed to appoint a “fentanyl czar” and pledged cooperation in fighting organized crime. Mexico agreed to deploy 10,000 troops to its border to combat drug trafficking. But these aren’t new concessions — just a repackaging of deals made under Biden. Trump didn’t win anything. He simply slapped a fresh coat of self-aggrandizing rhetoric on old agreements.

Frankly, nothing exposes Trump’s addiction to manufactured crises more than his insistence that these tariff deals are only on a 30-day pause. But nobody in their right mind believes Canada or Mexico will make further concessions. And Trump has turned his own negotiating position into a joke by demanding Canada relinquish its sovereignty to become the 51st state. Even pretending to take him seriously would be an exercise in self-abasement.

Targeting China for his next self-actualizing crisis

Now, Trump has turned his “fire and fury” on China, slapping a 10% tariff across the board today at 12:01 am EST. But, unlike Canada and Mexico, China doesn’t have to humor his bullying. Instead, Beijing retaliated, escalating a trade war that could trigger mutual economic destruction.

As the Associated Press reported earlier today:

China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google on Tuesday, just minutes after a sweeping levy on Chinese products imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump took effect.

More to the point, the same report notes that Trump plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming days. Because that conversation will almost certainly follow the same predictable script: Trump will stage the illusion of a breakthrough while, in reality, China concedes nothing.

Trump’s “war game” is as predictable as a baby’s tantrum. Manufacture a crisis. Play the strongman. Extract hollow concessions. Declare victory. Rinse and repeat. The only question: Why do media outlets keep treating each new crisis like it’s the dawn of World War III?

But there’s no denying the real damage Trump is doing to America’s credibility. By turning diplomacy into a reality show, he’s not only alienating allies but making autocratic China look like a steadier, more reliable superpower. Not just to non-aligned nations like South Africa, but even to allied ones like Denmark.

The real crisis isn’t Trump’s performative trade wars — it’s the slow erosion of America’s moral authority on the world stage.