'Dominate the playground': What Trump’s 'new world order' reveals about his psychology

President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, April 2, laid out the specifics for steep new tariffs he is imposing on a long list of countries. And they range from 10 percent tariffs for many countries to much higher ones for others. Mainland China is facing tariffs totaling 54 percent, while goods imported into the United States from European Union (EU) countries will see 20 percent tariffs.

Early April articles from the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the London Times delve into the reasons why Trump is so obsessed with tariffs, including his hyper-competitive mentality.

ABC's John Lyons explains, "This new world order of trade is driven by a central belief of President Trump: that the U.S., over decades, has built one of the world's biggest and most successful economies, but over many years, other countries have tried to take advantage of that success, reducing the wealth of Americans. He believes that by imposing these taxes on goods coming into the U.S., he will earn money to pay down U.S. debt levels."

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Lyons details the effects Trump's tariffs will have on Australia's economy, noting that "by nature, Trump is the ultimate crash-through politician."

Lyons writes, "Will he do something he rarely does — read the room of discontent from financial markets, American consumers, traditional friends and allies and the obstacle of the Constitution? Or will he take on all these realities at once? If he decides to try to crash through, the world is facing a very rocky few years."

Meanwhile, in the London Times, reporter David Charter cites Trump's need for dominance as a key reason for his tariffs obsession.

Charter notes that for Trump, "Life has been a constant battle to dominate the playground."

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Trump's need for dominance, according to Charter, was evident back in 1987 — when his book "The Art of the Deal" came out. And Charter points out that the 41-year-old Trump of 1987 sounds a lot like the 78-year-old Trump who made his tariffs announcement on April 2, 2025.

In 1987, Trump declared, "To the American People: For decades, Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States." And that year, he told television interviewer Larry King, "A lot of other people are tired of watching other people ripping off the United States. This is a great country. They laugh at us. Behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our own stupidity."

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Read the full Australia Broadcasting Corporation article at this link and the London Times' reporting here.