New York correspondent

When Donald Trump’s fortunes reached a recession in the 90s and he needed to raise cash quickly, he sailed the 282-foot (85m) superyacht, Princess Trump, who was the wealthy Japanese man. They sailed to Asia in hopes of attracting people.
It was not the first time a businessman has searched for Japanese buyers and lenders for his project.
In the world of New York’s real estate cutthroat, Trump has taken the front row seating from the 5th Avenue skyscrapers of iconic American brands and properties of the 80s, including the Rockefeller Center. I had it.
That was when his worldview on trade and his allies formed, and his entrenchment began to occur on tariffs, a tax on imports.
“He had an incredible responsiveness in Japan,” says Barbara Res, former executive vice president of the Trump organization.
He jealously saw Japanese businessmen being considered geniuses, she says. He felt that America was not getting enough to support its allies in military defense.
Trump often complained that he struggled to do business with a large group of Japanese businessmen.
“I’m tired of watching other countries tear the US apart.”
Trump’s quote may have been pulled from 2016, but in reality he first appeared as a potential presidential candidate since the late ’80s when he appeared on CNN’s Rally King Live.
Trump opposed American trade policy in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal., as he shared his business philosophy.
Before Oprah Show’s live studio audience, in an animation interview with Oprah Winfrey, he said he would handle foreign policy differently by “paying an equitable share” to allies of the country.
He added that while Japan “dumps” products into the American market, there was no free trade when it was “unable to do business.”

Jennifer Miller, an associate professor of history at Dartmouth University, said others shared concerns about the economy at the time.
Japan provided competition for US manufacturing, particularly in home appliances and automobiles. With US factories closed and new Japanese brands entering the market, critics were talking about Japan surpassing the US as the world’s leading economy.
“Trump is a symbolic of many people asking questions about American leaders in the US-led international order, and whether it actually served the United States,” says Professor Miller.
Before Oprah’s appearance, Trump had spent nearly $100,000 to release an “open letter” in full-page ads in three major US newspapers.
The headline says, “There is nothing wrong with America’s foreign defense policy.
In it, he said that Japan and other countries had been using the United States for decades. He argued that “Japanese people are not hampered by the enormous costs of protecting themselves (as long as the US does it for free), they have built an unprecedented surplus and powerful, vibrant economy.” did.
Trump believed the obvious solution was to “tax” these wealthy nations.
“The world is laughing at American politicians because we are destined for allies that don’t help us protect ships we don’t own, can carry oil we don’t need, and are destined for our non-help allies,” he wrote Ta.
Trump’s tariff details
Professor Miller said the ad served as a powerful introduction to Trump’s foreign policy vision. Allies were freeloaders, and Zerosum’s belief that the liberal internationalist approach that had dominated since World War II was weak and stupid in a competitive world. He argued that the solution was a more aggressive and protectionist trade policy.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why he loves tariffs so much. They fit his own sense, not just his trading ideology. “And the possibility that tariffs could be threatened. The fact that there is. They can hang in other countries.”
Clyde Prestwitz led negotiations with Japan as a counselor for the Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan administration. A longtime critic of free trade policy, he said no intellectually serious person belongs to Trump or his simple approach. He argues that the president does not provide a real solution to the issues he raised.
“The tariffs are flashy things you can say, and seeing what I did, I smacked those guys. So you can be a tough guy.
Prestwitz believes the real problem at the time was that despite complaining about unfair trade, the United States lacks a strategic manufacturing policy.
Of course, Japan’s fear of rising has subsided over time, but now it is an ally. Instead, China is the most intense corporate competitor in the United States. This week, Trump welcomed the Japanese prime minister into his oval office as one of his first foreign visitors.

But Donald Trump’s philosophy of governance is the same as when he was a young real estate developer. He believes in tariffs as strongly as the tools to open markets in other countries and pressure them to reduce the trade deficit.
“He always says this to those who listen whenever he asks. That’s true for 40 years. The conservative economist at the American Enterprise Institute.
He says that students often share intuitive thoughts about Trump’s economy, and one of the major challenges professors face is to convince them that their understanding is wrong. .
Strain believes he is confident of skeptical lawmakers, business leaders and economists for his decades of embracing Republican free trade despite Trump’s party holdings. He says he doesn’t think so.
His view that foreign imports are bad, that the scale of the trade deficit is a useful measure of policy success, or that ideal conditions for the US economy only import goods that cannot be physically physically in the US. His view remains that it is to do.
Strain believes the threat of increasing tariffs from US allies could reduce business investment and weaken international alliances.
Joseph Lavona, chief economist of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, has been focused on tariffs and has not made enough attempts to understand the full picture of what Trump is trying to achieve. I think so.
He says the president wants to stimulate domestic industries, particularly high-tech manufacturing.
The administration, if enacted by Congress, could use tariffs to encourage more businesses to come to the US, combined with deregulation, cheaper energy and lower corporate taxes. There is.
“I think President Trump understands that it’s very important to be a businessman and is a transaction. That’s theoretically great, but in the real world, fair trade is not a problem. It is necessary, and it is a level playing field.”
He bets Donald Trump is right. Few Republicans have publicly opposed the president because he demanded loyalty to his agenda.
Still, some silent people realize that their members could be affected by price increases, and hope that they can persuade Trump not to chase his beloved tariffs. I’m here.