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Trump has proven time and time again that he didn't understand soft power.

I wish people would stop with the “Trump doesn’t understand $thing” stuff.

It doesn’t matter whether Trump understands $thing. Pretending that he’s acting in good faith to make things better, but is somehow failing because he doesn’t get X, Y, or Z falls right into the trap. He’s trying to destroy American “soft power”. It doesn’t interest him.

Neither does a good economy, schools, NATO, etc. All of these things are being destroyed or mangled on purpose.

When a ruler does something that seems illogical, it's most often times meant to consolidate internal power. That being said, I often find Trump's moves to be bizarre even in that light. At least try to look good, but he seems to be do everything to look bad. Even MAGA fans have a hard time coping:

"It's just temporary pain"

"We need to consume less"

"I don't understand tariffs"

OTOH, trump is not very clever, and IS rather infantile. its sufficient to allege that forces that seek to destabilize American power likely aided Trump financially and he is proving a good investment. the term is "useful idiot" IIRC

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