The US president's stratospheric self-esteem doesn't match the way his interlocutors treat him. They may laugh at his jokes or play along, but that doesn't exactly mean they pay attention to him. They've gotten the better of him. His constant shifts in position are weakening him. People know that if you push him a little, if you pander to his ego with some apparent gesture, they'll make him move. Trump needs to present himself as the achiever, the successful and infallible negotiator. He's captive to his addiction to success, to the skinny, to show himself to the world as a born winner whom no one can resist.
The results, however, are sufficiently migratory. We've seen it with the tariffs. Almost everything on the bar blackboard has been erased, diluted, even with China's arch-enemy. What will remain of that bravado? We're also seeing this with the war in Ukraine, which he was supposed to end in a matter of days: Putin is chasing him down. He certainly reached an agreement on rare earths with the weaker candidate, Zelensky, but the Russian is slipping away. And the war continues. Europe, too, refuses to obey and is preparing, not without contradictions and doubts, for a future without its American friend. And in neighboring Canada, we've already seen what the people voted for: the anti-Trump candidate.
The strategy of threat and the proud display of his own security are turning against him like a boomerang. His strength is beginning to become his weakness. And not just politically, but also economically. Markets aren't for curveballs and instability. Companies need predictability in the medium and long term, not a volatile circus. The supermarket giant Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, has just announced it will raise prices. Americans' wallets will notice.
Trump is proving himself incredibly unreliable. As president of the most powerful country, he still wields enormous power, both military and economic, and therefore continues to inspire fear. But that's not enough. Power must be properly managed. And he is squandering it with arrogance. It's not that the king is naked—because he has power—it's that he is psychologically disguised with a grotesque superiority complex that his entourage fails to tame. They often make him backtrack, but he still presents each change as a sublime victory: he doesn't realize the ridicule and distrust it generates. Trust, in politics and economics, not to mention everything in life, is often the key to a comeback.
The confusion is this. Instead of seeking to gain people's trust in him—and therefore in the United States—he expects them to obey him, to follow his dictates. He dedicates himself to issuing opinions of unprecedented radicalism and harshness, as if this would reinforce his preeminence. The result is the opposite: his interlocutors have already understood that what he says is exaggerated and that it won't happen; they already know that he will back down, even propose contradictory things or go from one extreme to another. Now I'm friends with Putin, now with Zelensky. Now I've had enough of both; Now I summon you again...
The childish precariousness of his language also betrays him. Everything is either great or everything is shit. Friends or enemies. With me or against me. By reducing and simplifying problems and reality so much, it sometimes seems as if he doesn't even know what he's talking about. Yes, he communicates with great clarity and force, but paradoxically, he makes many doubt what he communicates, what he really wants. It becomes difficult for everyone—for rulers, businessmen, journalists...—to measure his positions, his strategy. In short, it becomes difficult to take him seriously.
The problem with all this is that we're not talking about a conceited neighbor, a boastful commentator, or a rebellious businessman. We're talking about the president of the United States, and his every word and decision reverberates far and wide. We're talking about the man at the head of the nation that prided itself on being the cradle of democracy and freedom. We're talking about a leader who wouldn't be credible if he were fictional, and who, by the way, is absolutely real and (mis)governs us all.
