Well, if it's the New York Times, it has to be fake news, ya know.
Seriously, I'm thinking Trump's trade war and all his other threats ad posturing are all designed to impress and entertain his fans and to confound and upset his supposed enemies. This a reality tv presidency where everything is pretend. Trump is pretending to live up to his PR of a tough guy. So he starts this [expletive], then he wiggles out of it. Art of the Deal? Hardly. It's like his meetings with Putin and Kim, A lot of fanfare and BS, but in the end, there is no real agreement and nothing is accomplished. I guess his deadline was coming, so he and his negotiators had to come up with something. So they rehashed old agreements, touted them as something new and presented Trump as a hero who adverted disaster at the last minute and made Mexico cave.
Frankly, I have long been tired of this reality tv show and wish it were canceled.