One person with intimate knowledge of Donald Trump's thinking on tariffs is businessman Wilbur Ross.
He was US Commerce Secretary in Mr Trump’s first term as US president from 2017 to 2021.
Mr Ross also knows Ireland well.
During the financial crash when the Irish government was desperate to lure international investment, his company WL Ross & Co, bought a 35% stake in Bank of Ireland in 2011.
It wasn't an act of charity. He sold his stake in 2014 making a profit of more than half a billion euro.
His investment was an important sign of confidence at a time when few foreign players would touch the Irish banks.
The deal was organised by an Irish company called Cardinal Capital, run by financiers Nick Corcran and Nigel McDermott.
On Tuesday night, the Cardinal pair co-hosted a public interview with Wilbur Ross in University College Dublin.
The 87-year-old financial guru discussed investment strategies including crypto currencies (he is a sceptic turned investor) and geopolitics.
But it was his comments about the inner workings of the Trump administration, tariffs and what they mean for Ireland which were particularly insightful.
He believes Ireland will avoid the most painful consequences of White House’s economic policies.
The Government has been concerned about a plethora of threats by Mr Trump to impose enormous tariffs pharmaceuticals.
But sentiment is changing.
One of the reasons for that is an extraordinary deal that drug giant Pfizer reached with the US administration last month.
It addressed a pet hate of Mr Trump: his concern that Americans are overpaying for medicines while consumers in other countries pay less.
Whether or not that is true, Pfizer agreed to lower prices on some products and sell them directly to customers in the US through Mr Trump’s own website TrumpRx.
In return, Pfizer will not be subject to tariffs for the next three years.
Mr Ross said he believed there will be "several" large drug companies which will now enter similar arrangements.
Pfizer has 4,000 employees here and is one of the largest corporate taxpayers in Ireland.
According to Mr Ross, it is becoming clear that Ireland is not going to be as badly impacted by Mr Trump’s tariffs as had been feared earlier this year.
He said the "gnashing of teeth" about the impact of the White House’s policies "may be overdone".
The pharmaceutical and medical device sector accounts for 65% of total goods exported from Ireland and 90% of products sold to the US.
According to Bank of Ireland, the 15% tariff imposed on EU goods exported to the US will now only have a "minimal" economic impact and will only affect 2% to 3% of exports.
But for those companies, such as whiskey producers, which have been hit with significant additional duties it does represent a serious burden.
However, the prospect of pharmaceutical companies avoiding tariffs would leave Ireland in a much stronger position than many other EU member states.
Many are big exporters of cars, steel and aluminum which will suffer more from Mr Trump’s policies.
Mr Ross said: "It may be pharmaceutical employment here won't be the big growth engine that it has been, but I don't think people are going to walk away from Ireland."
He said that US president's approach to tariff negotiations was like his business dealings as a real estate investor: adopt an extreme position at the outset and settle for something less painful.
Mr Ross's first encounter with Mr Trump was in 1990. Mr Ross represented investors who had lent Mr Trump money for his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.
Mr Trump's finances were unravelling, he was missing repayments to bondholders and was refusing to agree to an arrangement to pay back investors.
Mr Ross threatened to put the Taj Mahal into bankruptcy and only then would Mr Trump come to the table and agree to a deal. Since then, Mr Trump has held Mr Ross in high regard.
On Tuesday in Dublin, Mr Ross said that after threatening enormous duties on imports to the US the White House is now cutting deals.
Many international leaders are now telling Mr Trump "'thanks for only charging us tariffs of 15%,'" he said.
Not everyone will agree with his comments on the US president.
They cast the administration's policies in a positive light. But they do also explain Mr Trump's philosophy, however chaotic as it may seem to others.
