“ ‘I think his timing is just his own personal timing for this: He’s been president for a year, it’s about time he does something that gets people’s excitement going. He has a philosophy of life that that’s what you have to do: If you want to stay famous, celebrity — which he obviously relishes — you’ve got to be constantly creating news.’ ”

That’s what Nobel Prize-winning Yale economist Robert Shiller said to CNBC over the weekend about the president’s role in the ramp-up in U.S.-China trade tensions.

Speaking in Beijing Saturday, Shiller went on to slam Trump as a “showman,” whose actions are “totally unbecoming for a president.”

He warned that the “chaos” brought by a trade war could have a devastating impact.