Trump is betting on fear, not friendship – diplomat Bryza

He shared this opinion on-air with Espreso TV.

"President Trump doesn't look at the world the way any president in modern history does, or has. President Trump does not believe that the U.S. needs allies or friends. He's behaving the way he did in New York as a real estate developer, where he really had just people he tried to frighten and didn't really have friends. So he has said publicly that the most important tool of business, and of politics, and of life in general, is fear. So he wants other countries to fear, rather than to like or admire, the United States. And this is exactly the approach of traditional Russian foreign policy. I remember several senior Russian officials telling me during my day serving at our embassy in Moscow that real power comes from fear, not from being admired. And this is the way Trump looks at the world," Bryza explained.

The diplomat pointed out that the Trump administration didn’t fully consider the consequences of the tariffs it introduced — especially rising prices. Bryza also reminded that Trump had promised to lower prices for American consumers, but these tariffs will do the opposite.

"He and Elon Musk remain close, it seems like, but already now there's a big battle inside the White House between Musk and then Trump's senior advisor for international trade, Peter Navarro, who is a well-educated man. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. But his ideas are known very often to be presented to Trump by Navarro before he's thought them through. And what's happening with tariffs and the trade war Trump has launched seems to be one of those cases where Navarro came up with an idea that more tariffs will always be good for the United States. That happens to accord with Trump's long-standing view about tariffs — which he likes tariffs. But Navarro did not think through, and therefore Trump did not think through, how proceeding with these tariffs in a trade war against the entire world will inevitably make the United States weaker and poorer. And the tariffs themselves, initially, are inflationary. They cause prices to rise, when, in fact, President Trump had promised to reduce prices for American consumers on the very first day of his administration. So Trump is operating on fear rather than friendship, and that is a radical departure from any U.S. president in modern history," he added.

U.S. tariffs against all countries

On April 2, Donald Trump announced new tariffs of at least 10% on nearly all goods imported into the U.S.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged countries targeted by the tariffs not to respond with immediate retaliation, warning it would lead to escalation.

Shortly after, the U.S. president declared a state of emergency to increase competitiveness, protect sovereignty, and strengthen national and economic security.

But in the day following the announcement, the combined wealth of the world’s 500 richest people dropped by $208 billion.

Following the decision, British company Jaguar Land Rover said it would stop shipping cars to the U.S. for a month due to the 25% tariff introduced by President Trump. Audi made a similar announcement.

Meanwhile, on April 7, Trump said that if China didn’t cancel its 34% tariffs by April 8, the U.S. would hit back with even higher tariffs. On April 9, the U.S. would introduce 104% tariffs on Chinese goods.

That same day, Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had offered the U.S. zero tariffs on industrial products after Trump introduced the new measures.

On April 9, President Trump declared that his global tariff policy was "a war on the world" — then walked it back, saying it was "not a war at all."