President Trump’s astonishing abrogation of an American agreement undermines the credibility of every agreement the United States will ever try to negotiate in the future. He has not only proved that his personal word is worthless (he proves this pretty much every day), but he also has acted to ensure that no American president (past, present or future) can reliably commit the United States to anything.
This is just one more risk built into an already risky decision.
Those slow of learning feel a frisson of excitement to see him act recklessly. Americans have had a long-smoldering love affair with the idea of risk, sold to them by a corporate class who persuaded people that moving fast and breaking things was cool. What people didn’t notice was what has been getting broken was every mainstay of their personal security. They maybe should now pause to notice the fabulous riches that accrued to the breakers. When someone is rhapsodizing about risk, take a minute to assess who is bearing it.
Trump doesn’t flinch from risk. But what looks to some like leadership looks to others like pathology. You know the feeling you get when you are too close to the edge of a precipice? That is the feeling you are supposed to get when faced with a risky situation. It concentrates the mind on actual danger. Psychologists have clinical terms for people who don’t respond to actual risk. They may add “Trump” to that list of words. Trump has been making risky deals for his entire life. And no, they are not the best deals. His overpaying for the Plaza Hotel in New York is just one of many examples.
Trump has managed to wiggle free from his trail of bad deals by shifting the losses onto others, shortchanging people who have worked for him and finding either ever-bigger suckers, or now, as it appears increasingly likely, entangling and compromising himself permanently with dubious money.
Alas, the worst of it is that the biggest suckers that he finally discovered were frustrated American voters who were persuaded once again to ignore the flashing red lights of risk and put every institution of American democracy in his slippery little hands.
When somebody tells you “Don’t look down,” it just might be a good idea to look down.