President Donald Trump has no qualms about slapping steep worldwide tariffs on “the buddies of America” and doubtlessly destroying these historic relationships as a result of “he’s by no means had any associates” himself, an ex-employee informed CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday.
Jack O’Donnell, who was as soon as the president of Trump’s former Plaza Lodge and On line casino in Atlantic Metropolis, made his case after Burnett performed an interview clip from 1990 by which Trump said “it would be hard” to decide on a greatest pal as a result of he’s “a non-trusting particular person.”
“He’s at all times been a loner,” O’Donnell told Burnett. “He admits he doesn’t belief and he’s by no means had associates. And I feel on account of that, I feel you are taking the buddies of America, our historic associates, NATO, all people we handled that got here collectively throughout World Warfare II.”
“He doesn’t take a look at them as associates, ’trigger he doesn’t actually know what friendship is,” he continued. “In order that’s why it’s really easy for him to forged them away. They’re simply one other particular person. What Donald Trump has is acquaintances, and that’s it. He doesn’t have associates.”
O’Donnell, who wrote “Trumped! The Inside Story of the Actual Donald Trump” (1991) after a number of years of working underneath Trump, added there was just one particular person the previous actual property mogul ever “referred to as a pal” throughout that point. O’Donnell didn’t identify them Monday.
Trump dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day” and introduced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S., with levies on dozens of nations set even larger. International markets have been intermittently spiraling ever since; Trump himself spent the weekend {golfing} in Florida.
When requested why Trump has been so aggressive along with his tariffs, O’Donnell replied bluntly.
“Properly, he likes to exert authority over folks,” he informed Burnett. “And that’s one in every of his defensive mechanisms. If any person’s coming after him, he goes after them extra. However the backside line with Donald Trump is, he thinks he’s smarter than all people else.”
O’Donnell went on to say that, throughout their former enterprise relationship, Trump used to significantly internalize the monetary recommendation of an Atlantic Metropolis publication creator — just because the author “would actually reward Trump in the beginning of each publication.”
Whether or not that particular person is now Elon Musk, who claimed his mission as head of the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity is to chop solely wasteful public spending, or White Home commerce adviser Peter Navarro — who’s backing Trump’s tariffs insurance policies — is unclear.
“He’s only a friendless man, and that makes it simple for him to do among the issues that he’s doing in the present day,” O’Donnell concluded Monday in regards to the U.S. president.
