Zero-Sum

Could he be this ignorant?

Your reminder that having a trade deficit does not mean that you are “subsidising” a country, it means that you buy more from that country than it buys from you and indicates spectacular ignorance of how trade works. pic.twitter.com/pn7KAT70N9

— Bearly Politics (@i_iratus) March 17, 2025

Donald Trump said

No, no, listen. We've been ripped off for years and we're not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I'm not going to bend at all- aluminum or steel or cars. We're not going to bend. We've been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We've been subjected to costs that we shouldn't be subjected to. In the case of Canada, we're spending two hundred billion  a year to subsidize Canada. 

Ignorance may play a role. The President also can be heard saying

And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn't- we don't need anything that they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible countries visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it- between Canada and the US. Just a straight , artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago- many, many decades ago. Makes no sense- it's perfect as a great and cherished state....

Just wait until tens of thousands of individuals and families waiting in Mexico hear that President Donald Trump, of all people, believes that the border between countries is artificial and makes no sense. Open borders, everyone!

Yet, ignorance does not go very far in explaining our President. More likely, the grand unified theory to explain Donald Trump is his belief in zero-sum game theory, defined here as "a situation in which one person or group can win something only by causing another person or group to lose it."

Donald Trump wants to harm other individuals, nations, or organizations (e.g., NATO) because he believes to the extent he does that, there is a benefit to reap. It may be to himself, his family, or the USA the beneficiary depending upon the situation.

If someone or some thing loses, Donald Trump's side- his country, himself, or whomever- gains. In The Atlantic (behind paywall), Jonathan Rauch explains a theory, patrimonialism, first proposed by German sociologist Max Weber. It is not classic authoritarianism but a style of governing in which, Rauch writes, "rulers claimed to be the symbolic father of the people- the state's personification and protector."  

The state is run "as if it were the leader's personal property or family business" and thus Trump "recognizes no distinction between what is public and private, legal and illegal, formal and informal, national and personal."  John Bolton has argued that Trump "can't tell the difference between his own personal interest and the national interest, if he even understands what the national interest is."

Bolton is only partially right. Trump does not distinguish between his own personal interest and the national interest. but he does understand what the national (or his personal) interest is: it's whatever disadvantages his adversary. That's whomever he can harm because that advantages his team.

And so he beats up on Canada. As Fiona Hill has noted, "basically what Trump always wanted to be was the big, strong guy in front of Putin. and he does that by beating up on the people he can beat up on."  Consequently, ignorant or not, the President promotes the myth that the USA has been subsidizing Canada. Fortunately, his effort to pose as the nation's father/protector and to harm another nation is not going unchallenged by our neighbor to the north.

 

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