The Trump Trade Puzzle

You may have noticed WS was down 2% yesterday at the news of steel and aluminum tariffs. This is a consequence I anticipated since year 0, it should come to no surprise to you (remember all my old posts discussing this outcome?). Facing China is a war with casualties. I am amazed Trump decided to go ahead with it, viva Trump! But would you please explain to me why Trump is willing to punch ahead in spite of hurting the stock market? What kind of political calculation he is making? Who is pushing him? WS must be crazy mad at him. The fact that Cohen is about to resign seems to be an indication that WS is very unhappy, but how in the hell does Trump dare to challenge savers and WS all together risking an early recession? This question puzzles me.
May be we are giving Trump too much credit for being a rational and comprehensive thinker. I feel that he is guided by his gut to a large extent and that he is impulsive. He has long had a feeling that the U.S. is getting cheated in international trade and this is deeply felt. He doesn’t worry too much about the potential short term consequences because he thinks in the long term what is doing will turn out to be a good thing.
Secondly, I don’t think he pays that much attention to Wall Street. He is a real estate guy not a trader. I don’t thin Cohn’s possible resignation has anything to do with the attitude of Wall Street. I think it has everything to do with just being exhausted trying to work in the chaos of the Trump administration and also has an element of getting out while his own reputation is still reasonably good.
Finally Trump’s Dad took him to a Billy Graham prayer rally as a kid. He some how does relate to regular working people and knows they put him in office. Despite being a very wealthy guy, his instincts and gut feelings are those of the working class and regular guys.