President Trump just unleashed a wild rant on Truth Social, accusing media figures of deliberately ignoring good news about his worsening tariff disaster because they “hate and disrespect our country.” He added that the tariffs have made us “FAR STRONGER AND MORE RESPECTED THAN EVER BEFORE.” What caught our eye is how this shows Trump running everything, no matter how trivial, through a “strong” versus “weak” frame. He’s vowing to seize Venezuela’s oil after his invasion; he’s threatening many other countries with military action; and he’s even menacing Greenland, a NATO ally. Yet a new poll finds surprisingly low support for his action against Venezuela on multiple fronts. We talked to international relations expert Nicholas Grossman, who argues that Trump has it all backward: All these blustering fits and threats are a sign of Trump’s personal and political weakness and also are weakening our country’s international standing. We discuss whether that bad poll suggests an opening for Democrats to seize the strong/weak frame from him. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
PODCAST
Trump Explodes at Media Over Tariff Fiasco as Poll Delivers Harsh News
As Trump rages at the press over coverage of his tariffs while threatening new military actions, an international affairs expert explains the core fallacy at play: Trump’s bluster displays weakness, not strength.
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