After President Donald Trump’s recent unhinged press conference — on the Potomac plane crash, not the one announcing the launch of Trump Gaza — I thought of Ronald Reagan.
On Jan. 13, 1982, a plane taking off in Washington — from what would eventually be renamed Reagan National airport — crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River and plunged into the icy waters, killing 78 people. Lenny Skutnik, a printing assistant at the Congressional Budget Office, was a bystander on the scene, watching a helicopter lowering a rescue line to passengers in the water. Priscilla Tirado was too weak to grab hold of it. Skutnik dived into the waters, swam to Tirado and dragged her safely to the riverbank.
Two weeks later, Skutnik was invited to sit beside Nancy Reagan at the State of the Union address. Her husband introduced Skutnik as “the spirit of American heroism at its finest.” That began the tradition of presidents inviting “heroes in the balcony” to attend the State of the Union; for a time they were even referred to colloquially as “Skutniks.”
Out of tragedy Reagan sought to encourage, to praise courage, to console and lift up the heroes. Trump chose a different option at his Potomac press conference, seeking to blame, impugn and tear down. It was ugly.
Then came the game of tariff-you’re-it over the weekend. Much attention was given to the The Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Dumbest Trade War in History,” which opened by citing “the old Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend.”
That was good a reminder, but my thoughts went again to Reagan and a happier time in Canada-U.S. relations. In his weekly radio address of Nov. 26, 1988, Reagan took note of Canada’s free trade election earlier that week. After offering congratulations to prime minister Brian Mulroney, Reagan offered his philosophy of trade.
“One of the key factors behind (America’s) great prosperity is the open trade policy that allows the American people to freely exchange goods and services with free people around the world,” Reagan argued. “The freedom to trade is not a new issue for America. In 1776 our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, charging the British with a number of offences, among them, and I quote, ‘cutting off our trade with all parts of the world.’ ”
Moving toward more recent history, he recalled that he cast his first presidential vote in 1932 for FDR, “who opposed protectionism and called for the repeal of that disastrous tariff.” Reagan was referring to the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which led to “the actual result of the Great Depression, the worst economic catastrophe in our history.”
Having skipped from 1776 to 1930 — and, conveniently for his argument, the tariff policies in between by both the U.S. and Canada — Reagan then presciently addressed 2025.
“Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies,” Reagan said to President Trump over the distant horizon. “We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag.”
And then, in a passage that diagnosed the principal confusion at the heart of Trump’s approach, Reagan explained the mistake made by those who speak more than they think.
“Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words,” Reagan said. “We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries.”
Trump gets that exactly wrong, in both directions. He regards trade policy as war, and war policy as trade.
Tariffs thus become ammunition, used as intimidation, shock-and-awe weapons deployed to achieve any number of goals. The tariff “resolution” with Mexico included the deployment of Mexican troops to the border; military forces included in trade policy.
War, in turn, becomes a commercial negotiation. While Ukrainians talk about a “just peace,” Trump talks about making “a deal”; while Israelis talk about security, Trump always talks about making a deal. The problem in the chancelleries of the world, as Trump sees it, is too much reading of The Art of Diplomacy and not enough reading of his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal.
In that book, Trump recalled his eviction and redevelopment strategy for a building he owned on Central Park in New York City. It’s a sleazy tale, but not completely out of keeping with the local real estate scene. As a model for international relations though, it was thought to have limited applicability until Tuesday, when Trump unveiled his occupy-evict-and-redevelop plan for Gaza.
Trump plays warrior when it comes to trade and plays tycoon when it comes to war.
Reagan again; this time in his famous address in Normandy for the 40th anniversary of D-Day: “The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.”
Trump thinks that territory for a memorial is a foolish forfeiting of a premier branding opportunity.
Trump has borrowed shamelessly from Reagan — who ran in 1980 on the twin slogans of “Let’s Make America Great Again” and “Peace through Strength.” Trump does not understand either of them, but wants credit for both. And so he goes to war with friends and makes deals with enemies.
National Post