It would be the civilisational tragedy of modern times if the present anachronistic President of the United States succeeds in his utterly foolish intention of reversing the very globalisation and international economic integration that has made America the greatest nation since the dawn of human civilisation.
Due to internal and external pressures, Donald Trump has had to “back down”, putting a 90-day pause on his world-wide tariffs which erased trillions in global stock markets in mere days.
The unprecedented recklessness threatened a global recession and eventual collapse of the international financial system. Markets continued to plummet as his tariff war intensified with China. Even the US$51 trillion bond market, “the bedrock of the financial system”, is experiencing jitters.
“A world order built on interconnectedness has been ripped up by the White House itself,” says The New York Times, “and the United States’ position at the epicentre is in doubt.” Self-inflicted pain by a dinosaur running amok in modern times.
Even Trump’s favourite, Elon Musk, openly disagreed, wanting “zero-tariffs” between the US and the European Union (EU). He deliberately celebrated free-market intellectual Milton Friedman and ridiculed Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro as “truly a moron”.
Other billionaire financier friends, ecstatic when Trump won, also universally lambasted his tariffs. But not all the bright were blind. Peter Berezin, chief global strategist at BCA Research, saw a recession with Trump’s re-election and says it is still possible even if Trump backs off since “enough damage has been done to the US and global economy and investor and consumer confidence”.
Trump could make America isolated in the modern world. As I stated previously, during his first-term tariffs, most nations quietly moved on, seeking trade with other countries, causing “a decline in the US share of trade flows but an increase for Asia, Europe and the Middle East”, says Ruchir Sharma, head of Rockefeller Capital Management who sees “more trade without America” in Trump’s second term of tariffs.
Indeed, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic says, “The US makes up 13% of global goods trade. We must protect the remaining 87% and ensure the global trade system prevails for the rest of us.” Gideon Rachman warns in the Financial Times, “Trump is sowing the seeds of an anti-American alliance.”
He does it with his idiotic assertion that for the past five decades, the US has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” by friends and foes alike and now it is America’s “turn to prosper”.
Where has this man been, for heaven’s sake? Is he incapable of comprehending America’s rise after the Second World War? Do we have “Donald Dunce” here? He should be taught it is the global trading and financial system which America itself spearheaded that made America become the most prosperous and successful nation in history.
Folks, globalisation has been generally characterised by the win-win approach when both sides compromise. But for Trump, former “real estate developer, bidding for plots of land”, there can only be one winner in a negotiation.
Dinosaur thinking amidst modern multilateralism. Hoping to correct US trade deficits with his tariffs on almost every country thinking manufacturing investments would return to restore America’s might in the sector.
But “Donald Dinosaur” is out of touch. “Wanting to return to a manufacturing economy is a 19th century perspective,” says Susan Ariel Aaronson, research professor at George Washington University. Today the services sector—from finance to software engineering—constitutes 70% of the US economy. The jobs of the future won’t be in manufacturing, says the World Economic Forum, but driven by “technological advancements such as artificial intelligence”.
This is where the US must invest. Instead, Trump has put on hold billions in grants and contracts for major universities such as Harvard, Brown and Princeton, and revoked the US visas of hundreds of foreign students when the majority of PhD students in artificial intelligence are foreign-born.
“You are cutting off the supply of human talent needed to develop the best possible technology,” says one expert. Talent needed for automation, robotics, and the integration of digital technologies which have “revolutionised production processes, enhancing efficiency, precision, and productivity”.
The modern manufacturing environment is driven by advanced manufacturing sectors such as aerospace, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy.
And no country can do it alone. Globalisation has created interconnected supply chains where “goods and parts flow across multiple borders, sustained by international co-operation through which global trade, outsourcing, and off-shoring allow manufacturers to access new markets, reduce costs, and tap into specialised expertise”.
The archaic “Donald Dunce” must accept the new international reality. His is “a shocking ignorance about how the global economy works”, says Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute.
“I have never seen a policy as stupid as this,” says David Brooks, senior columnist in The New York Times.
And Katie Martin, expert in the Financial Times, says even the country’s core financial assets—treasuries and the dollar “are losing the sheen of global hegemonic dominance they have enjoyed for decades. The trust has gone. And US markets will bear a scar that lasts”.
Behold the work of Donald dunce, dangerous dinosaur.
