Donald Trump's WTO threat shows he is becoming predictable

The obvious reaction to Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is that it isn’t exactly going to help the Brexiteers’ cause. For months they have been arguing that everything will be okay in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit – we will simply trade under WTO rules. And then comes along the leader of the world’s largest economy and says he wants out of that organisation, threatening its existence, or at least its position as the undisputed arbiter of global trade.

But then another thought springs to mind, with even more severe repercussions for the world: Donald Trump is becoming predictable. We have seen it with North Korea, steel and aluminium tariffs, the UN, you can sense it with Iran and it wouldn’t surprise me if it eventually happens with climate change as well. Trump’s modus operandi is to throw a very large spanner in the works of international organisations and agreements, shock everyone, act the isolationist and then, when everyone has given up on him, to come to the table eager to do a deal.