THE obvious question at the present moment is: “What is President Trump really up to?”
In my opinion he is not the village idiot some like to think he is.
Yes, many of his actions seem to suggest this, however it is important to remember he converted his father’s many millions of dollars into a few billion as a property developer and land dealer.
Yes, some of his companies have hit the economic wall and failed badly, but Trump survived more or less unscathed.
Looking deeper into finances, the USA has a domestic debt of US$36 trillion.
That number is written down as US$36,000,000,000,000.
It is a huge number by every calculation.
Their debt is now a frightening 125 percent of their annual GDP and is growing by US$3.6 trillion per year.
Their interest payment on that debt figure is now above US$1 trillion each year.
To put that in context, Australia’s entire annual GDP is $1.8 trillion, a number that is only half of the USA’s interest bill.
Like many western economies, governments have spent money on unproductive endeavours and even worse, they have printed money and spent it unwisely to gain political points and favours.
A surefire way of losing money they can’t replace.
Many administrations completely lose control of their economy, and just hope that the next government might be able to find a way to either fix it or hide it.
Surely Trump’s advisors must have told him about the economic mess his country is in?
Maybe he isn’t listening, or maybe he thinks his tariffs on all imports can correct or cover up the present situation.
Another way for him to lessen the burden of economic recovery might be to turn his back on the rest of the world; that would mean not funding any overseas military operations to support their once allies in NATO, Ukraine, the Middle East, Israel and even Australia, should our AUKUS project fail to deliver its intention.
Trump seems to be fixated on making America great again by rejecting his obligations worldwide and erecting an economic mote to surround his nation.
By John BLACKBOURN
