‘Total chaos’: Donald Trump’s opponents search for anything like a plausible explanation of his tariff flip-flopping

The world has been searching for any plausible explanation for Donald Trump’s recent behaviour. This one might fit the bill. But it’s not comforting.

Much of the world has spent recent days and hours searching for an explanation.

Why is the US President acting so rashly? Why does he keep vacillating, for hard-to-discern reasons, on his core economic policy?

He imposes sweeping worldwide tariffs. Less than 24 hours later, he drastically reduces those tariffs. He does so without any substantive concessions from the targeted countries.

The aforementioned explanation has been hard to come by, but here is an interesting effort from one of Donald Trump’s more prominent political opponents.

Do keep in mind that this guy, Pete Buttigieg, is a Democrat. He’s the former mayor of South Bend, a city in Indiana, and served as transportation secretary in the Biden administration, but is best known for having run a surprisingly successful presidential campaign in 2020 (he ultimately lost the Democratic Party’s nomination to Joe Biden).

You can absolutely expect him to run again in 2028.

For now, he’s spoken to comedian Jon Stewart’s podcast, The Weekly Show. You will know Mr Stewart as the previous full-time host of parody news show The Daily Show; he now does that show only on Mondays. It’s a nice life.

Pete Buttigieg talking to Jon Stewart.

In the interview, Mr Stewart described Mr Trump’s recent actions as “killing the hostage and then asking for ransom”. But Mr Buttigieg insisted “there’s a logic here”.

“If you make it chaotic, then the only organising principle is the man himself,” he argued.

“And then all that matters is which country, which industry, which company, got to the man, and convinced him or flattered him or whatever it took – got him to give them some mercy.

“This is part of how consolidating power works. There is a sort of logic to this. The more messy you make it, they can’t appeal to you, saying, ‘Oh, you published this guidance on how the tariffs were going to work, and if really you interpret it the right way you should give us a break.’ It’s, ‘I’m going to find Trump.’

“Whether it’s a company, a country or an industry. Think of a way to say, ‘You want to make an exception for us.’ The more it works that way, the more it is total chaos, except you get to the man, to the king, the more power he personally has.

“Obviously that’s a terrible way to make policy. But also I have got to believe that definitely most liberals, I think most thoughtful conservatives that I talk to, and any libertarian, gets that literally the entire point of this country is we don’t have a king.

“We don’t have some guy who, how he feels in the morning, or whether he got out the wrong side of the bed this morning, is going to define your fate.”

Right, so, that theory essentially boils down to it being a big power trip. Mr Buttigieg’s view of the case is that Mr Trump likes the idea of other countries’ leaders ringing him and asking for mercy. Which is supported by what the President himself said earlier this week.

Donald Trump. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Other parts of the discussion between Mr Stewart and Mr Buttigieg focused on the lack of clarity, from the administration, regarding its goals in the tariff saga.

“The one thing I’ve been shocked by, more than anything, is an inability to coherently communicate what the idea is, and what the plan is,” said Mr Stewart.

“I’ve heard very little consistent logic.”

“Well why bother with that?” asked Mr Buttigieg.

“Honestly, I don’t think they believe they have to justify what they’re doing to the American people. Even the people who voted for them.

“These screw-ups are not something that causes introspection. Every time I’ve been in government, obviously, there were things we did not get right. It’s human beings doing their best, you don’t get everything right. If you believe the press will hold you accountable, then you know that when you don’t get something right you have to talk about it, think about it, learn from it, do better next time.

“If, on the other hand, you think you can just beat your chest, ‘It’s all fake news, don’t believe your lying eyes, no problem, the leader knows best,’ then why bother going through the finer points of making sure the places you’re putting tariffs on are actually countries?”

Mr Buttigieg described the current state of affairs as “a frightening cocktail”, particularly for “people who are living close to the edge, pay cheque to pay cheque”.

“Look, if you’re a billionaire. If you are like most of the people in the President’s cabinet right now, or a multi-millionaire, like most members of Congress, then OK. This might not be your problem,” he said.

“You’ll probably be OK. But for so many people, this is not a game. This is not something that’s just of interest because you like watching the news.”

There are about a dozen billionaires serving in senior roles in the Trump administration, including some of the people responsible for managing its tariff policies. Chief among them, not counting Mr Trump himself, is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Originally published as ‘Total chaos’: Donald Trump’s opponents search for anything like a plausible explanation of his tariff flip-flopping