Having watched Trump for 30 years, I suspect that a number of things that have occurred again and again in the past will occur now and in the near future.
Trump is about the deal. He's not about governing, he's about a series of transactions. He prepares a property or product (Trump university/water/steaks/casino etc.) for sale in a way that mum and dad investors think is a sure thing. It's only after it's sold that they realise that it looks better than it is. So it goes into bankruptcy, retail investors lose their cash, but Trump has exited at the peak and moved to the next project.
Trump's focus at the moment is to get the next deal, the 2020 presidential election. So he's not governing in the traditional sense, he's pulling the levers of economic and governmental power in a way that will give the illusion that things are great until people vote.
But there's a problem.
Now Trump is a salesman. He listens to people and feeds back to them their concerns to sell his product. He's picked up on many things (a number of which I agree with) and had a go at doing something about fixing them. Mum and dad retail investors respect that, and have no idea that they may lose their cash (yet again in a Trump deal).
The problem is... in negotiating a deal he has a number of tells, to use a poker term. He always doubles down, for instance. If someone tries to bluff him he doubles the bet. In domestic US politics it works. With the incredible US consumer economy it works, as it looks ballsy. But I have a sneaky suspicion that Xi Jinping, after being wrong footed by him initially, has worked out his style. Even though they're in a world of pain, I think we're going to see an interesting game plan by China in the next year before the 2020 presidential elections.
