Donald Trump not a lonely trade warrior as Obama denounced NAFTA in 2008

All major candidates in the presidential election of 2016 railed against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact

Threatening tariffs on imports from China, President Donald Trump has provoked swift vows of retaliation from Beijing, shaken financial markets, and generated great uncertainty and confusion. Long before China started to run huge trade surpluses against the US, he ranted against American trade partners. Other countries, he claimed in 1999, “can’t believe how easy it is to deal with the US. We are known as a bunch of saps.” Elevated to the White House, Trump has turned into a reckless trade warrior. His recent tweets on Syria and Russia confirm that he thinks too lightly of even real wars.

But