This man, Trump, that his base found so brilliant is an idiot, a Chump, who knows not what he does.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opi...n-Trump-has-become-China-s-chump-11251713.php
Okay, I have to admit that I strongly dislike Friedman, and that he, in my estimate, fell through the floor when he declared, during the run-up to the war on Iraq in 2003, France to be at war with the U.S.
That said, I find Friedman has yet to exhibit any serious grasp of the Trump phenomenon. The man is half entertainer, half insecure bully in pursuit of his naked self-interest, disregarding just about anything else. With that in mind, that the Trumpy doesn't know what he's doing (outside of his pursuit of his self-interest) is just a given, not the result of some serious analysis. He plainly and patently doesn't know, and neither cares about the U.S.'s geo-strategic position in the world, or would ever care to learn how to advance anything related to that. Scrapping TPP was the entertainer, the White nationalist, Bannon side of Trump, feeding his blue collar followers some red meat. At that moment, that aim trumped any and all concerns about geopolitics. That's just how the Trumpy ticks.
I, for one, find it patently hilarious to see Friedman, the Bush fluffer extraordinaire, to whine about the lack of "toughness, patience and savvy" in the current pretend-President. Moreover...
"That's why the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that U.S. national income would have grown by some $130 billion a year by 2030 with TPP - a nice boost for U.S. workers.
... carrying the neo-liberal water for TPP, which sure would be a "boost", almost exclusively for international "investors" (more aptly dubbed gamblers and vultures), but almost certainly none for U.S. workers, is just the icing on the non-palatable Friedman cake of grandiose platitudes.
