Hearts & Minds: Golf and the Godfather – how trump is framing the latest tariff twist

Yips are what you get when nerves kick-in so you can’t sink a putt. In explaining his tariffs climbdown to America and the world, Donald Trump chose the language of his favourite pastime. It’s what he feels comfortable with, the banter of the locker room.

‘Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit afraid, unlike these champions, because we have a big job to do,’ said the president while standing, pictured with NASCAR drivers.

The symbolism screamed: if only those nervy people could be like these winners and it goes without saying, Trump himself.

He is not to blame for the turmoil of the past few days; he was doing right, others were wrong not to understand what he was doing, what he still intends to do. There will be pain, he’d said that, but they were not brave enough.

Not for Trump the inspiring oratory of a Winston Churchill, following the retreat from Dunkirk: ‘We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.’

Or the self-deprecating humour of a Boris Johnson, on his own reversal, at being sacked from the Tory front bench: ‘My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.’

Nor the sheer emotional defiance of a Martin Luther King: ‘Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountain side. Let freedom ring…’

Trump’s instinct is to ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ after being shot. It’s to lash out on Truth Social in block capitals with a newly created insult aimed at those who worried: Don’t be weak! Don’t be stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!’

As well as sports, he draws on the New York mobster boss movie trope. China showed him a ‘lack of respect’ and must pay.

He’s wounded, sure he is. But ‘No other president would have done what I did. No other president, and it had to be done.’ You get what I am saying?

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.