Trade War ‘disaster’ With China
Trade policy is where the president wields the most economic power, as Congress has over the years delegated negotiating authority to the presidents office, according to Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Chinn documented the trade war saga on his macroeconomic policy blog Econbrowser.
Trump exercised this power almost immediately during his first years in office and even went so far as to use national security as a basis for trade barriers with China — something that no president has done in recent times.
Ultimately, the tit-for-tat trade war that Trump waged with China was lost by the U.S., economists say, and data on trade deficits confirm.
Trumps dramatic trade war upended decades of policy, and kicked off with failed meetings with Chinese leaders in 2017. After the talks disintegrated, Trump initiated the trade war by imposing tariffs on all imported washing machines and solar panels in early 2018. He then announced 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum. China retaliated with tariffs of up to 25% on more than 100 U.S. products including soybeans and airplanes. The sporadic, retaliatory trade-off battles waged on for years, and dragged other countries that were trying to remain competitive in as well.
By the end of his term, the trade deficit will be larger in absolute terms than it was when he came to office, Chinn told ABC News.
Relationship With The Press
Trump began promoting himself in the press in the 1970s, and continued to seek media attention throughout his career, sustaining a “lovehate” relationship with the press. In the 2016 campaign, Trump benefited from a record amount of free media coverage, elevating his standing in the Republican primaries.The New York Times writer Amy Chozick wrote in 2018 that Trump’s media dominance enthralled the public and created “must-see TV.”
As a candidate and as president, Trump frequently accused the press of bias, calling it the “fake news media” and “the enemy of the people“. In 2018, journalist Lesley Stahl recounted Trump’s saying he intentionally demeaned and discredited the media “so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you”.
As president, Trump privately and publicly mused about revoking the press credentials of journalists he viewed as critical. His administration moved to revoke the press passes of two White House reporters, which were restored by the courts. In 2019, a member of the foreign press reported many of the same concerns as those of media in the U.S., expressing concern that a normalization process by reporters and media results in an inaccurate characterization of Trump. The Trump White House held about a hundred formal press briefings in 2017, declining by half during 2018 and to two in 2019.
Trump’s 2020 Reelection Campaign And Second Impeachment
In his reelection campaign for 2020 against Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, Trump doubled down on his core issues of bringing back the economy following the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, boosting job growth, an America First approach to trade and foreign policy and a hardline stance on immigration.
Trump continued to hold large rallies, as he did during his 2016 campaign, despite the risks of coronavirus. Most of these rallies were held outside to mitigate risk. Trump also said he was all for masks, but rarely wore one himself.
In October, Trump, as well as several of his cabinet members, contracted the coronavirus. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center for three days where he received multiple treatments, including an experimental antibody. Upon his release, Trump told reporters that he felt better than I have in a long time.
In the final days of his campaign, Trump continued to declare himself the president of law and order, pushing back on calls for police reform amid the outcry over racial injustice and police brutality. Just over a week before Election Day, the U.S. Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Trumps nomination to the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, who had clerked with the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
In a break with tradition, Trump did not attend the inauguration of President Biden, becoming one of only seven presidents in U.S. history who did not attend their successors inauguration.
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Did Trump Damage American Democracy
Did Trump permanently damage American democracy? This question has spawned a veritable cottage industry of hand wringing over the state of American democracyunderstandably so. Never before have we had a president who schemed to overturn legitimate election results, who attacked the press and the civil servants who worked for him, who admired dictators, who blatantly profited from his public office and who repeatedly lied to the public for his own selfish purposes. But while Trumps four years of rhetoric have been a shock to democratic norms, did they inflict permanent damage on our democracy? My answer is a qualified no. The guardrails of democracy held. The institutions designed to check autocracy are intact.
Successful democratic systems are not designed for governments composed of ethical men and women who are only interested in the public good. If leaders were always virtuous there would be no need for checks and balances. The Founding Fathers understood this. They designed a system to protect minority points of view and to protect us from leaders inclined to lie, cheat and steal. Fortunately, we havent had many of those in our 200-plus years of history, which is why the Trump presidency sent such shock waves through a large part of the body politic.
Did Trump weaken the powers of Congress? No.
Has Donald Trump Been To New York Since Ending His Presidency
On March 9, 2021, Trump was seen at his first trip to New York City since exiting the White House.
Trump was seen leaving Trump Tower in Manhattan in the afternoon after spending two days to look under the hood of his family company that is under investigation by state prosecutors, The Daily Mail reported.
The 45th president had arrived at Trump Tower the night of March 7, with Security Service and New York Police Department personnel and was not spotted again until he departed on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.
It marked the first time Trump has visited New York City since he left the White House and moved to Florida.
On March 9, 2021, Secret Service and NYPD vehicles parked around the building as Trump waved to fans that gathered near his car.
Trumps son Donald Trump Jr trailed his father and got into another vehicle in the motorcade.
A source told the New York Daily News that Trump wanted to re-familiarize with the Trump Organization and his various business interests since returning to civilian life.
The source told the newspaper: “Hes quite curious about his businesses and his employees, his organization, and is eager to look under the hood.
“Hes not entirely sure of the role he will play, but he misses it, for sure.”
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance and New York state attorney general Letitia James have active investigations into Trumps business dealings and recently issues subpoenas for the former President and his two children, Ivanka and Don Jr.
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Bidens Foreign Policy Agenda Broadly Popular Across Advanced Economies
The Biden administrations foreign policies included on the survey enjoy widespread popularity. Of the four policies tested, the United States reentry into the World Health Organization garners the most approval, with a median of 89% saying they support the move. Support for this policy is most prevalent in Europe, where shares ranging from 86% to 94% approve of the U.S. returning to the organization. The move is also broadly popular in Canada and the Asia-Pacific.
Bidens decision to recommit to the Paris climate agreement is also very well received. A median of 85% approve of the U.S. rejoining the accord. Across Europe, about nine-in-ten or more across six countries polled favor the move, with respondents in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK following closely behind. Shares of roughly eight-in-ten or greater are also supportive in Canada and the Asia-Pacific region.
Rejoining the accord represents a reversal from former President Trumps decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, a move that was met with widespread disapproval when Pew Research Center asked about it in 2017.
In addition to Bidens reversal of Trump-era withdrawals from international organizations and pacts, his plans for the U.S. to host a summit of democratic nations earns widespread approval. Across the 16 publics polled, a median of 85% express support for the convening, and in each, eight-in-ten or more say they favor the plan.
Only About A Third Say The Us Considers Their Interests In Foreign Policy
Despite the sharp uptick in favorable views of the U.S. and its president in 2021, most people surveyed continue to say the U.S. doesnt take into account the interests of publics like theirs when making international policy decisions. Across the 16 publics, a median of 67% say the U.S. does not take their interests into account too much or at all, while only 34% say Washington considers their interests a great deal or fair amount.
Across the European countries surveyed, there is a fair amount of variation in this assessment. As few as 16% in Sweden say the U.S. considers Swedens interests when making foreign policy, but roughly half or more in Greece and Germany do. In Germany, this represents a 32 percentage point increase since 2018, when this question was last asked. Despite this uptick, replicated across many of the European nations surveyed in both years, majorities in the region say the U.S. does not consider their interests when making foreign policy decisions.
Asian-Pacific publics also tend to say Washington discounts their interests, including 85% among New Zealanders. Around seven-in-ten in Australia and South Korea, as well as 54% in Singapore, concur that the U.S. does not consider their interests when making foreign policy.
Still, the predominant sentiment, going back to 2002 when the question was first asked, is that the U.S. does not consider the interests of countries like theirs. The election of Joe Biden has not fundamentally changed that.
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Read A Brief Summary Of This Topic
Donald Trump, in full Donald John Trump, , 45th president of the United States . Trump was a real-estate developer and businessman who owned, managed, or licensed his name to several hotels, casinos, golf courses, resorts, and residential properties in the New York City area and around the world. From the 1980s Trump also lent his name to scores of retail venturesincluding branded lines of clothing, cologne, food, and furnitureand to Trump University, which offered seminars in real-estate education from 2005 to 2010. In the early 21st century his private conglomerate, the Trump Organization, comprised some 500 companies involved in a wide range of businesses, including hotels and resorts, residential properties, merchandise, and entertainment and television. Trump was the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives and the only president to be impeached twiceonce for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with the Ukraine scandal and once for incitement of insurrection in connection with the storming of the United States Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters as Congress met in joint session to ceremonially count electoral college votes from the 2020 presidential election. Both of Trumps impeachments ended in his acquittal by the U.S. Senate. Trump lost the 2020 election to former vice president Joe Biden by 306 electoral votes to 232 he lost the popular vote by more than seven million votes.
Was I Stupid Was I Blind
When a popular leader continually employs division and misinformation to promote his goals, loyalists can drift from democratic standards and from fact-based reality.
Chatman, the Berkeley Haas leadership expert, trained as a social psychologist. Research, she said, has shown that people can be persuaded by the stories that leaders tell. If a leader makes an appealing promise, people will remain loyal, even if the leader doesnt deliver.
Trump, Chatman explained, has framed a narrative that says, Im the turnaround guy. Im going to drain the swamp. Im going to blow Washington up. And so anyone who was disaffected about government, which turns out to have been a lot of people, likes that narrative.
How far does that influence extend?
Exhibit A: QAnon is a bizarre conspiracy cult united in the belief that Trump is defending the world against a vast network of Satanic pedophiles including Democrats, Hollywood stars and others in the deep state who are attempting to traffic in children and generally to threaten freedom. Trump has welcomed QAnon support and sometimes retweets their communications.
One recent poll found that 56% of Republicans now believe that the improbable QAnon conspiracies are somewhat or entirely true. Only 4% of Democrats agree.
Its much easier and more cognitively consistent to stay in and say, Oh, the media, the Democrats, theyre not giving him a fair shot. . Thats why we dont see any movement in the Trump base.
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Business Career Of Donald Trump
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Donald Trump is an American businessman and television personality who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He began his real estate career at his father’s company, Trump Management, which he later renamed the Trump Organization. He rose to public prominence after concluding a number of highly publicized real estate deals in Manhattan, and his company now owns and licenses his name to lodging and golf courses around the world. Trump partly or completely owned several beauty pageants between 1996 and 2015. He has marketed his name to many building projects and commercial products. Trump’s unsuccessful business ventures have included numerous casinos and hotel bankruptcies, the folding of his New Jersey Generals football team, and the now-defunct Trump University.
After being inaugurated as U.S. president in January 2017, Trump resigned all management roles within the Trump Organization, and delegated company management to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric. However, Trump retained his financial stake in the work document, leaving ongoing concerns about possible conflicts of interest.
Early Life And Business Career
Trump was the fourth of five children of Frederick Christ Trump, a successful real estate developer, and Mary MacLeod. Donalds eldest sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, eventually served as a U.S. district court judge and later as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit until her retirement in 2011. His elder brother, Frederick, Jr. , worked briefly for his fathers business before becoming an airline pilot in the 1960s. Freddys alcoholism led to his early death in 1981, at the age of 43.
Donald Trump attended New York Military Academy , a private boarding school Fordham University in the Bronx and the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Finance and Commerce , where he graduated with a bachelors degree in economics. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, he secured a diagnosis of bone spurs, which qualified him for a medical exemption from the military draft . Upon his graduation Trump began working full-time for his fathers business, helping to manage its holdings of rental housing, then estimated at between 10,000 and 22,000 units. In 1974 he became president of a conglomeration of Trump-owned corporations and partnerships, which he later named the Trump Organization.
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Presidential Campaign And 2011 Hints At Presidential Run
In 2000, Trump ran in the California and Michigan primaries for nomination as the Reform Party candidate for the 2000 United States presidential election but withdrew from the race in February 2000. A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican nominee George W. Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven percent support.
In 2011, Trump speculated about running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, making his first speaking appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2011 and giving speeches in early primary states. In May 2011, he announced he would not run, and he endorsed Mitt Romney in February 2012. Trump’s presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time.
Cherishing Life And Religious Liberty
Steadfastly supported the sanctity of every human life and worked tirelessly to prevent government funding of abortion.
- Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion globally.
- Issued a rule preventing Title X taxpayer funding from subsiding the abortion industry.
- Supported legislation to end late-term abortions.
- Cut all funding to the United Nations population fund due to the funds support for coercive abortion and forced sterilization.
- Signed legislation overturning the previous administrations regulation that prohibited states from defunding abortion facilities as part of their family planning programs.
- Fully enforced the requirement that taxpayer dollars do not support abortion coverage in Obamacare exchange plans.
- Stopped the Federal funding of fetal tissue research.
- Worked to protect healthcare entities and individuals conscience rights ensuring that no medical professional is forced to participate in an abortion in violation of their beliefs.
- Issued an executive order reinforcing requirement that all hospitals in the United States provide medical treatment or an emergency transfer for infants who are in need of emergency medical careregardless of prematurity or disability.
- Led a coalition of countries to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, declaring that there is no international right to abortion and committing to protecting womens health.
- First president in history to attend the March for Life.
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