Getting Them To Do What They Didn't Want To Do

President Trump has one quality that I believe is very much unrecognized and under appreciated.

I am referring to his ability to get people to do what they don't want to do.

We saw it in his first term when he successfully pressured the NATO alliance to substantially increase their defense spending in keeping with the 2% of GDP spending guideline.

Most NATO countries had for decades ignored spending on defense and spent increasing amounts on social spending.

As an example, look at Germany's history of allocating more and more money to social expenditures while ignoring defense spending even in the face of increasing geopolitical risks.

They knew they should be spending more on defense especially with the threat of a reinvigorated Russia under Putin

It was just much easier for many of these countries to just rely on the United States to defend them.

When Trump took office in his first term only three NATO countries were spending the targeted 2% of GDP on defense. One of those countries was the United States.

When Trump left office in 2021 the number of NATO countries spending at least 2% of GDP on defense had increased to 10.

The wisdom of Trump was fully revealed when Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine under Biden that made the potential Russian threat to Europe much more real.

Trump's genius was getting the NATO countries to do what they should have been doing anyway.

We are seeing Trump operate similarly in his second term.

For years, most of the rest of the world has taken advantage of the United States in trade.

Tariffs and trade barriers are erected against United States products while the U.S. market has largely been open to everyone.

Compare the tariffs and trade barriers that have been in place with our "trading partners" compared to what the United States has had in place in this chart from B of A Global Research

President Trump has called out this injustice and is arguing for trade reciprocity.

The end game here is geting our trading partners to do what they don't want to do.

Let's move toward trade that is both FREE and FAIR.

This is particularly true with regard to Canada.

When President Trump first met with Prime Minister Trudeau shortly before being sworn in as President he stated he needed Canada to tighten up its border and to also significantly crack down on drug trafficking.

If Canada was not willing to do that Trump threatened tariffs.

Trudeau told Trump that if the United States levied a large tariff on goods it exports to the United States that Canada would cease to exist as a country.

To this point, Trump had never given a thought to Canada becoming a state.

However, his response to Trudeau was very logical.

"If Canada cannot exist without being reliant on the United States market perhaps it would make sense for Canada to become a state. There would then be no tariffs going either way."

About 20% of Canada's GDP is tied to exports to the United States. 

On the other hand, U.S. exports to Canada represent less than 2% of the U.S. economy.

 

These exports also represent about three-fourths of all the exports shipped from Canada.

Source: https://x.com/Martyupnorth_2/status/1886060620203843608

In fact, more goods are exported from Canada to the United States each year than any goods that are transferred among the provinces of Canada.

It will be difficult for Canada to win any trade war with the United States considering those numbers.

Predictably, we have seen Canadians rally around their country. They are talking about being less reliant on the United States. Increasing defense spending and looking to expand exports to other countries. 

All of this is actually to Canada's benefit in the long term.

Why didn't they do it before?

It was too easy to just rely on the United States for its defense and as a market for its goods.

Trump is getting Canada to do what they didn't want to do.

The same is true with regard to Trump's statement that he wanted the United States to take over and rebuild Gaza after the Israel/Hamas war.

I doubt that Trump was really serious about this plan.

However, I think he understood that saying he wanted to do this would force the hand of other Middle Eastern countries to step up and take over.

It is another example of Trump getting them to do what they didn't want to do in the first place.

Finally, let's look at how Trump played the recent potential government shutdown that was threatened over the budget and debt situation

It has long been the Democrat strategy to not participate in any legislative effort to avoid a government shutdown while a Republican was President.

It was just too attractive an opportunity to blame the Republicans for the shutdown and rely on the mainstream media to amplify the message. Government shutdowns always seemed to benefit the Democrats as Republicans took the blame.

Many expected the same scenario this year.

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a number of other Senate Democrats did not want to trust Trump with the power to dictate what the budget priorities would be this time.

When Democrats controlled the White House they were sure to only cut those things that inconvenienced the American people the most---access to national parks, longer TSA lines at the airport, etc. They also furloughed "non-essential" federal workers but always assured them full back pay. In effect, it became a free vacation for federal workers.

With Trump in power and a lot of information from the DOGE effort, there was no assurance that Democrat priorities would be protected this time.

Federal workers (most of which are Democrat voters) would likely have been laid off and would receive no back pay when (if) they returned to work.

Schumer blinked.

Trump got the Democrats to do what they did not want to do.

Getting people to do what they don't want to do is a unique talent of Donald J. Trump.

How does he do it?

He is not afraid to confront uncomfortable issues.

He is not afraid to make others uncomfortable with their positions on those issues.

He is comfortable in his own skin and confident in his own instincts.

As a result, he gets uncommon results that many think are impossible.