Manufacturing Success

February 04, 2025 22:12

On the campaign trail last year, US President Donald J Trump proudly declared that “to me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff”.

His brusque and assertive rhetoric resonated naturally with his base, who craved the restoration of “manufacturing jobs” to the US, which, especially its consumers, had benefited off offshoring throughout the past few decades.

On February 1st, Trump “delivered” upon his much-hyped tariffs. Canada and Mexico each received 25% tariffs on all their goods (barring energy imports from Canada), whilst China was slapped with an additional 10% tariff. Most observers would go onto decrying this gesture as an act of economic idiocy. Even the stereotypically Trump-deferential Wall Street Journal called Trump’s plans – or the lack thereof – as the “dumbest trade war in history”.

The Canadian and Mexican populations understood fully the “Rally around the Flag” motto and zeitgeist. Indeed, they took to embodying its spirit.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stood her ground, protesting phlegmatically the erratic unilateralism and haughty condescension with which her people were castigated. Ahead of her Canadian counterpart, she landed a call with Trump, where she pushed back against the “slanderous” remarks he made on cartels in Mexico.

North of the border, outgoing Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was plausibly wondering why he had opted to step down before the announcement of these tariffs from Trump – a Godsend for any politician worth their salt in fending for their own country’s interests. Trudeau’s remarks were strident, forthcoming, and exuded a (rare) sense of composure and commonsense that had been dwindling over the past few years in his governance and is all but decimated when it comes to Trump’s eccentric vacillations.

Hours later, Trump declared “victory”. He suspended tariffs on both Mexico and Canada for 30 days, in exchange for both governments committing to bolstering their border patrol presence, so as to stymy the flow of illegal immigrants and the fentanyl trade. In other words, both governments pledged to follow through on plans and policies they had been negotiating with the Biden administration over the past two years. Buenissimo!

One would be forgiven for seeing this as a nightmare, or a farce, at the level of a crossover between a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Midsommar (the latter is not a movie recommendation I’d make, but a reference I must invoke).

Sadly – and absurdly – it is not. Trump’s model of “manufacturing success” (given his fixation upon bringing “manufacturing” jobs back to the US, this pun makes more sense than usual) is rather straightforward. First step, manufacture a crisis: engender moral panic, stoke the fears and paranoia of the crowds, and generate the popular pressure and support for drastic, ‘revolutionary’-for-the-sake-of-revolution moves taking the country nowhere!

Second step, come out with thinly veiled coercive threats of sanctions, tariffs, invasions, or illicit takeovers. This bullying tactic has worked surprisingly well against Colombia and Panama – and is testament to the Trump White House explicitly framing Latin America as its so-called back-garden. Monroe Doctrine is back with a vengeance.

Third step, when confronted with the abysmal detriments of his reckless actions: tariffs drive up prices; sanctions reduce uptake of the USD given fears of asset freezes and manipulations; alliances crumble in face of uncertainty and capriciousness; long-standing partnerships are dissolved over the inanest of reasons… Deny! Ignore! Distract one’s audience for a sufficiently long time such that they don’t notice what one has done. Focus on the weather.

Fourth step, ask for “concessions” from one’s opponent. Extract tokenistic agreements, reach nominal “deals” (‘tis really no different from signing loads and loads of MoUs that few actually follow up on). In this case, Canada and Mexico were to agree to a long-standing course of events to which they had… previously broadly accepted. Both governments committed resources in ways that would do very little for the welfare for the average American citizen.

Fifth step, claim credit! Trump would take these meagre “wins” and spin them into something materially important. This, after all, is the art of the spin: framing, lying, misportraying, intentionally skewing the representation of events in order to complete the cycle.

Trump is an excellent manufacturer. He excels in manufacturing “success” – in creating false impressions of crises, solutions, and successes. As Elon Musk’s DOGE takes to dismantling the American state apparatus under his watch, one must inevitably wonder… How does Trump feel about Musk’s recipe for success, which – to give the man much credit where it is due – has much less to do with artificial “manufacturing” of crises and successes, and much more to do with a borderline psychopathic tendency to squeeze, push, and shove with brute-force colleagues of his onto the metaphorical train track, such that they unleash the potential embedded within them – and get things done?

Assistant Professor, HKU