Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social

Professor of International Relations, Georgetown. Former DoD and Senate staff. Foreign policy, political science, case study methods, environment, snark.

[Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social @IRgetsreal]

I will be teaching a one-week case study methods course in St. Gallen, Switzerland June 15-19. Get info and sign up by May 10 here:

https://t.co/TNgGPaHhl7

[Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social @IRgetsreal]

I have 427 followers on Bluesky and 2700 on Twitter(which I barely use now).

I recently did a thread critiquing tariffs on both sites. 190 reposts, 433 likes on Bluesky. One like on Twitter.

Come see me on Bluesky.

https://t.co/7N7GHSuzPJ

[Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social @IRgetsreal]

This is the essence of Donald Trump, the origins of the sad menagerie of fear, greed, selfishness, petty revenge, and lust for power and domination that drives everything he does.

He is an idiot of historic proportions and we will all suffer for it.

[Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social @IRgetsreal]

It is difficult to convey how monumentally idiotic Trump’s tariffs are.

Allow me to try.

Let’s begin with Adam Smith.

In the 200 years prior to Smith’s 1776 “Wealth of Nations” Mercantilism was the dominant view of trade.

[Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social @IRgetsreal]

This brings us back to the term I used deliberately at the outset: idiotic.

The term goes back to the Greek word idiotes, where it had the meaning not only of an unskilled person but also a person acting only for themselves, separate from society.