It’s just pain now in exchange for more pain later.

Trump and his people seem to be embracing the devastation. The party line is that this economic disaster represents temporary but necessary pain — a period of adjustment while Trump’s policies create a utopian future economy free of all foreign entanglements. In a statement that probably sparked the most recent selloff, Trump himself declared:

There could be a little disruption. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective… we go by quarters. What we’re doing is building a foundation for the future.