Trump trade war: How Japan shaped Trump’s perspective on tariffs

Jennifer Miller, an associate professor of history at Dartmouth College, said others shared his concerns about the economy at the time.

Japan provided competition for US manufacturing, particularly in consumer electronics and cars. As US factories were shuttering and new Japanese brands entered the market, pundits were talking about Japan surpassing the US as the world’s leading economy.

“Trump is sort of symbolic of a lot of people who were kind of questioning American leadership in the American-led international order, and whether it actually served the United States,” Prof Miller says.

Before his Oprah appearance, Trump had spent almost $100,000 to release an “open letter” in full-page ads in three major US newspapers.

The headline read: “There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure.”

In it, he said Japan and other nations had been taking advantage of the US for decades. He claimed “the Japanese, unimpeded by the huge costs of defending themselves (as long as the United States will do it for free), have built a strong and vibrant economy with unprecedented surpluses”.

Trump believed the obvious solution was to “tax” these wealthy nations.

“The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help,” he wrote.