The World Trade Organization was created in 1995 with the primary purpose of regulating international trade, ensuring that trade between its 164 member nations flows, in its own words, “as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible.” Given that these words are in direct opposition to his ethos as a human being—not to mention the fact that the U.S. entered the organization before he was in office—you could probably have guessed that Donald Trump hates the W.T.O. with every fiber of his papaya-colored soul. On the campaign trail he called the organization “a disaster” and, as with NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Iran deal, threatened to pull out of it post haste. And while he hasn’t made any moves to do so during his first year and a half in office, having more urgent fish to fry such as separating toddlers from their families, passing a giant corporate tax cut, and fighting with kneeling football players on Twitter, a terrifying new report suggests he’s finally ready to scratch that itch.
According to Axios, Trump has told top White House officials that he wants out of the governing body, having “[threatened to withdraw] 100 times.” A source who has discussed the subject with the president, and who knows such a move would “totally [screw] us as a country,” says that Trump has frequently told advisers, “We always get fucked by them [the W.T.O.] I don’t know why we’re in it. The W.T.O. is designed by the rest of the world to screw the United States.” While some aides have attempted to hold the president’s hand like the small child he is and explain to him that, in fact, the U.S. has done very well with the W.T.O., the arguments have been lost on him. (He apparently has not considered the 2018 “Economic Report of the President,” signed by him, that states: “[T]he United States has won 85.7 percent of the cases it has initiated before the W.T.O. since 1995, compared with a global average of 84.4 percent. In contrast, China’s success rate is just 66.7 percent.”)
Perhaps even more disturbing, considering the catastrophic global fallout that would result from the U.S. leaving the W.T.O., Trump’s economic advisers seem to be treating the president like he’s a thoughtful, rational human being rather than a capricious, unpredictable carnival barker:
[The] advisers do push back in the moment when he raises the idea of withdrawal. But they’ve never put in place a policy process to take the idea seriously, according to four sources with direct knowledge of his private comments. That dismissive attitude in the face of Trump’s insistence could ultimately prove to be a mistake—as history has shown with other policy ideas of which aides do not approve.
Take this one out the door @ https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/trump-world-trade-organization
