Donald Trump, the US president, announced a plan of reciprocal taxes in April, claiming that Americans had been taken advantage of by” fakers” and “pillaged” by foreigners. Since then, property markets around the world have plummeted, and worry has spread that Trump’s techniques will cause a slowdown that risks bringing down the structure of business that has been in place since the end of World War II.
The Financial Times and the  soon caused a strong reaction, with the  calling Trump’s actions “utter insanity” and” an act of war against the entire world.” Trump is now regarded as one of the world’s most overbearing and uncertain officials.
The library of the Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club of Japan contains a beautiful lighthouse that puts lighting on Trump’s unexpected behavior. This is an audio recording of Trump, who traveled to Japan 32 centuries ago as a business but not as a politician.
Trump attended a media luncheon at the FCCJ on August 18, 1993, while visiting Tokyo, which was the Yurakucho Denki Building at the time. He was in the method of discussing different business enterprises such as real property and games, but instantly changed the subject to the business disparity between Japan and the United States. In his opinion, “morons” had been used to represent America during past US-Japan business negotiations. He stated:
I think the Chinese diplomats have done one of the wonderful tap-tap-taps always. That’s kicking off the conversation, giving absolutely nothing, and making the American idiots say,” Thank you.”
The US was demanding the beginning of industries like cars, electronics, and supercomputers because the country had a significant trade imbalance with Japan at the time. Dissatisfied with the gradual development of the conversations, Trump singled out Carla Hills,  , the US deal agent under President George HW Bush, for condemnation:
Carla Hills said that we must realize that it takes time, but it really doesn’t take time when I look at the job that she did. It doesn’t take much time at all. Free business doesn’t get day. You can’t relax for four or eight years without experiencing free deal.
He continued:
The Chinese friends I’ve seen over the last few times– and they’re really great friends – they themselves grin at the foolishness of my state. They laugh because they all recognize what I ‘m , right? They claim I’m correct, but they’re correct.
There was a portentousness to Trump’s notes.  ,
On September 2, 1987, Trump had published an open letter in big American publications, including the New York Times , and the Washington Post, six years prior to his press conference in Tokyo. The email sharply criticized Japan and other countries for taking advantage of the US over the previous years:
As we defend the Persian Gulf, an area of only marginal value for the United States ‘ crude materials but on which Japan and other countries are almost entirely dependent, the story continues unabated. Why don’t these countries compensate the United States for the billions of dollars we are losing to protect their and their passions?
The earth is laughing at America’s officials as we protect boats we don’t possess, carrying petrol we don’t want, destined for allies who didn’t help.
From this viewpoint, we can see that Trump’s view was developed in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and that the speech he uses currently has no significantly altered. In other words, he is also residing in the world of 1993.  ,
Trump’s rage toward the US government for no quickly resolving Japan’s enormous trade deficit with the US, at a time when Japan was the second-largest economy in the world, can be attributed to his position. And Trump’s intention was to use the mutual tariffs to combat the business imbalance, which he announced last month.  ,
The impact of 1993 is what is crucial here.
The Berlin Wall fell only four years prior, tearing down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War II. In December 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed. After being defeated, communism was suddenly over, and it could be anticipated that Western-style democracy and capitalism would soon become practiced everywhere. Americans had a sense of hope and awe among others.
Unfortunately, Trump was confronting several challenges to his organizations at the time.
Trump had expanded his business empire into hotels, games, and an airport in the 1980s, but he ended up with enormous bills. One of those businesses, Trump Shuttle, operated a flight that connected Boston to New York, Washington, DC, and Washington, DC. But, after Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, gas prices surged and customer need dropped, while expenses of running an aircraft soared. Trump later sold it to a rival.
He told investigators at the FCCJ,” This is what I’m doing.
I was unhappy in going into a really horrible company, something called the flight business. Have any of you worked for an flight? I’ll show you that this is the worst company ever.
President Bush marshaled the US-led foreign troops, attacking Iraq and effectively free Kuwait. Trump, however, referred to the first Gulf War as a” shame”:
Nothing is aware of the true cost that the United States incurred during this conflict. Anyone knows. And we received no fair compensation for it. And we were dumb.
Ironically, Trump has agreed on a package with Ukraine for its material assets, which he described as payment for military support the , US , had provided to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale war in February 2022. Given the trauma and significant harm the Gulf War had caused to Trump’s organization, it may seem like a crazy idea at first glance. However, it is natural.
Another crucial factor in knowing Trump was fidelity, which was revealed at the FCCJ press event. He looked up on the day when his company struggled in the 1990s, and compared it to battle:
When you engage in a battle, you learn stuff about who is dedicated and who is not. You discover who your friends are, but the truth is that you can’t really tell. I wish I may say that anyone with golden locks or black hair or black skin or mild skin was devoted. But that’s just how it works. People I would have bet the ranch on ruined my life, please excuse me for the phrase.
He added:
I say that I’d like to be in trouble at some point in my life so that I can determine who will be loyal and who will not be. You do learn a lot about loyalty, I suppose. And I think it’s a very important word.
Trump has kept his word and appointed people to cabinet positions based on their loyalty. Additionally, he demands that anyone who wants to work for the government be given loyalty checks. To Trump, loyalty is everything.
Loyalty may be the answer to everything, but irony was in his circumstances. Investors in Hong Kong and Japan were the people who fervently backed Trump when he was trying to get out of a difficult business situation. At the FCCJ, he said this about his supporters:
Both Japan and Hong Kong make up our largest customer base. And I just want to thank so many of them for sticking with me. They did buy my , products. They did visit my casino and, perhaps most importantly, negotiate deals with me on casino bonds.
Yet Trump made the announcement to impose reciprocal tariffs on Japan, one of his main supporters, last month. Unfortunately, it appears that those who were loyal to Trump were not treated with reciprocation.
We have a lot of insight from Trump’s Tokyo press conference 32 years ago, as well as the principles that govern his behavior. In terms of foreign affairs, defense, the economy, and personnel, those remarks remain completely consistent with his current actions and policies. They might even be said to have been prophetic. In that regard, Trump’s words and actions have always been consistent.  ,
His speech contained only one remark that could be regarded as contradictory. If Trump had continued to follow his words with the same conviction, he might have altered both the history of the United States and the world as well.
He stated to his Tokyo audience,” I’m not running for office.  , Who cares if I’m politically correct”?
Writer Eiichiro Tokumoto was born and raised in Tokyo.
The FCCJ’s Number 1 Shimbun published this article at the beginning. It is republished with permission, updated to reflect the fact that the Ukraine minerals deal has been agreed upon.