President Trump speaks during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday. On Friday, Trump got into a bizarre and awkward public debate with his own U.S. trade representative, Robert E. Lighthizer. Nonetheless, you can see these private-sector lessons in how Trump approaches dealmaking at the White House. Even when a trade deal has been struck, as in the case of NAFTA 2.0, Trump still declined to lift metal tariffs on Canada and Mexico as promised. To the United States’ great peril, we’ve treated our longtime friends like Trump’s many one-time contractors.

Source: Washington Post February 26, 2019 00:00 UTC