Reports that Trump was very close to unilaterally withdrawing from our signature trade agreement with Canada and Mexico were apparently true, but his advisers and cabinet members persuaded him not to press the button at the last second.
According to the Washington Post, other members of the regime convinced him not to by showing him a map of areas of the country that would be completely screwed if he did it.
As news of the president’s plan reached Ottawa and Mexico City in the middle of the week and rattled the markets and Congress, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and others huddled in meetings with Trump, urging him not to sign a document triggering a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA.
Perdue even brought along a prop to the Oval Office: A map of the United States that illustrated the areas that would be hardest hit, particularly from agriculture and manufacturing losses, and highlighting that many of those states and counties were “Trump country” communities that had voted for the president in November.
“It shows that I do have a very big farmer base, which is good,” Trump recalled. “They like Trump, but I like them, and I’m going to help them.”
From this we can infer many things.
Obviously, Trump will make world-changing decisions based on whims if someone close to him doesn't stop him. We can also infer that Trump doesn't understand who his own base of voters are.
The latter is very revealing because Trump often brags about his electoral college win, but he doesn't seem to understand who voted actually vote for him. He doesn't seem to understand where those electoral college votes came from.