–America is hurting itself more than anyone

Bloomberg’s Interview With Malaysia’s Longest-Serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,

10 July 2025

www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-mahathir-bin-mohamad-weekend-interview/

Listen to the whole interview.

Some key bits:

On Israel’s genocide in Gaza:

“When a country is actively carrying out genocide and sees that genocide is a way to defend its country, that is not acceptable.”

“All these things started when Palestinian land was seized to make Israel.”

“Conflicts are not necessarily resolved through confrontation, through wars. You can negotiate. You can even go to the world court and get a decision.”

On Trump:

“He’s against the whole world. And to him, by raising the tariff high, it will stop the goods from being imported.

But this is not a very good strategy, because if you raise the tariff on imported goods, the cost of those goods coming into your country will be very high. And if those goods are required for your industries, like components, like microchips, the cost of your product would be higher.”

Bloomberg question: “So if you were speaking directly to Donald Trump, what would you say to him? How would you put this message across in the punchiest terms?”

“We tell him that he is wrong. His strategy is wrong. It’s going to damage America more than the rest of the world.

Of course, the rest of the world will suffer, but America will suffer more. Because all those industries which were set up by Americans outside of America to take advantage of lower cost, those industries cannot come back to America in the short time necessary. So for some time, America would still continue to import these products with high tariffs.”

…..

From Big Take Asia: Bloomberg’s Interview With Malaysia’s Longest-Serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 10 Jul 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bloombergs-interview-with-malaysias-longest-serving/id1746141911?i=1000716726352&r=930
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NOTES

Weirdness:

Weird how Apple AI transcript, or perhaps Bloomberg …made this confusing by replacing seized with ceased??

(Makes clearer, sets out key bits, NOTES)