Donald Trump is trying to fail, writes the New York Times' Paul Krugman.
In a new column, the Times writer explains how Trump is not just failing because he is angry and unintelligent, but because he wants to.
Krugman makes his case based on Trump's handling of NATO negotiations, which he wants to bungle, and on the trade war he seems to be sparkigmn with China, which he seems to want.
He is not trying to win concessions, Krugman writes, he just wants a trade war.
"Mr. Art of the Deal doesn’t want any deals. He just wants to tear things down," he writes.
Krugman goes through the history of the current world order, which was former with U.S. leadership after the second World War.
"What Trump is trying to do is undermine that system, making bullying great again," he writes.
Why? That's the really scary part of Trump's efforts to fail.
"Part of the answer is that anything that weakens the Western alliance helps Vladimir Putin," he writes. "If Trump isn’t literally a Russian agent, he certainly behaves like one on every possible occasion."
Read the full story here.