Yuri Kobzar20:36, 07.04.25

Trump’s internal universe has different rules than the real world, which is why the actions of the US president seem so illogical.

Donald Trump is unable to distinguish America’s friends from its enemies when it comes to the economy or the military-political aspect. All because the US president lives in his “own universe”, which is different from ours. This is what veteran American politician John Bolton writes in an author’s article for The Telegraph .

Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser for a year and a half during his first term in office. On this basis, Bolton claims that he has a good understanding of why the current US president does what he does.

According to him, the current American leader has a rather simplistic view of the world. For example, Trump does not see the difference between the US’s relations with other countries and his personal relationships with the leaders of these countries.

“Putin said he wanted peace, and Trump accepted it. That’s why Trump has made so many concessions to Russia, and why Volodymyr Zelensky rightly feels so besieged. It’s a personal motivation that many observers have missed, speculating instead on ‘political’ reasons,” Bolton writes.

Trump has latched onto the topic of ending the war in Ukraine not because he sees it as a threat to the world, but solely for personal reasons. According to Bolton, Trump is simply jealous of the Nobel Peace Prize that Barack Obama received and wants to have the same one for himself. 

“This also explains why in his March address to Congress he called the war “senseless”. Obviously, such a war is easier and faster to end than one where real issues are at stake. This is a man in a hurry for his Nobel,” Bolton emphasizes.

Then, Trump’s former advisor expressed confidence that his former boss “would sooner receive the Nobel Prize in Literature than in Peace.”

Bolton calls Trump’s threats not to defend NATO allies unless they increase defense spending a mere bargaining chip. But he acknowledges that Trump is actually capable of pulling the United States out of the alliance.

But regarding the trade tariffs, which have already caused a collapse in stock markets around the world, the US president is quite serious, Bolton believes. He emphasizes that experts were in vain expecting balanced and targeted tariffs on imports to the US and are now trying in vain to understand the White House’s “strategy”.

“Trump listens first to himself, not to others. He creates his own world, this time an imaginary trading world, and then lives in it. Trump is not so much lying as operating a parallel universe, like a boy’s treehouse, where the numbers mean what he says they mean. He reacts poorly when the real-world numbers don’t match: after all, who’s in charge?” Bolton writes.

Trump’s reaction to the market crash and counter-tariffs

As UNIAN reported, amid a decline in key economic indices around the world, including in the United States, Donald Trump began desperate attempts to reassure Americans and justify his decision. He made several public statements and posts on social media, where he talked about how everything went well with the tariffs.

Trump also threatened China with even higher tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing does not reverse its decision to impose mirror tariffs, which were a response to the American restrictions adopted last week.

(c)UNIAN 2025