What was initially described as the “amusing distraction” of Donald Trump is perhaps better called chaff – blizzards of metal, glass or plastic that fighter pilots spray out to confuse and deflect enemy pursuit. For the better part of a decade, Trump’s tactic of distraction has been pivotal, his stream of rapid-fire tweets and campaign-trail comments keeping him in the news and throwing adversaries off balance.
The explosion of chaff since his election victory has been both typical and effective in keeping world leaders and media, whether US or international, off balance and irresistibly focused on his agenda priorities.
Whether or how such tariffs will be imposed is impossible to predict. Even Trump probably has no clear idea. He has nominated so many tariff advocates to his inner circle that tariffs are highly likely to be central to his trade policy – but that is not the point.
Trump has succeeded in dominating the media narrative months before his arrival in the Oval Office, and triggered a frenzy among the world’s leading trade economists into earnestly – probably pointlessly – calculating the impact of such tariffs.
