The cost of Trump’s madman theory on tariffs

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/08/trump-tariff-threats-taco-india-greenland/

Tariffs drive up prices for consumers and hurt long-term growth, but are they useful as a tool of statecraft? President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs to coax or coerce other countries to change their foreign policy to advance American interests, but he’s had uneven success.

Trump thinks his erratic nature is a strength. He turns down the temperature, only to turn it up again — as he did with Korea. There’s logic to the “madman theory” of foreign policy. Unpredictability can be a force multiplier.

Yet it’s also his greatest liability, especially as Trump has been known to stand down with little to show for it. He announced major tariffs on several European countries to pressure Denmark into selling Greenland, but he blinked days later without any meaningful concessions. Trump also looked for an off-ramp to a trade war with China after Beijing cut off U.S. access to critical minerals.