Is Trump Really Outwitting the World?

A month ago, John Authers was already warning his readers of the coming manic Mondays of Donald Trump. But if his presidency thus far were pop lyrics, it wouldn’t be by The Bangles. More likely, it would be a loveless version of something by The Cure. Sorta: “Monday you can fall apart/Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart; Oh, Thursday doesn’t even start/Friday oh my god!…”

That doesn’t even cover the weekend. The US president announced his (now suspended) tariffs against Canada and Mexico on a Sunday.

Panama, Colombia, Denmark and others have been whipsawed by Trump’s grumbles. His proposal of a rare earth-for-peace in Ukraine might have something in it, according to Marc Champion, but his solution for Gaza flabbergasted much of the world outside of Israel. White House staffers walked back remarks that practically envisioned the battered Palestinian enclave as a site for future Trump hotels.

This week, Trump also warned the European Union that it was in his trade-war sights (Lionel Laurent has advice for the EU here). Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will be the first leader of a major US trading partner to meet Trump. Says Gearoid Reidy: “For all the talk of creating a new ‘Golden Age’ of US-Japan relations, the foremost goal will be to ensure Tokyo is not the next target of Trump’s tariffs.”

India — whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a Trump cheerleader — is now scared of being targeted for imposing too many tariffs itself, as Andy Mukherjee notes. A docile New Delhi is obediently accepting the return of planeloads of undocumented Indian migrants from the US. “Trouble is,” says Andy, “nobody can predict if the concessions currently on the table will be enough, or whether the White House will ask for more.”

Shuli Ren says President Xi Jinping had one big way to avoid the brunt of Trump’s tariffs, but China’s leader has not cultivated the potential of the Chinese domestic consumers and thus made the People’s Republic vulnerable to assaults on its vaunted export-led growth. Now, new postal duties on packages from China will flatten the trajectories of e-commerce superstars like Temu and Shein.

While upscale American shoppers sniff at the shoddy products from those Amazon-wannabes, Catherine Thorbecke says US consumers may still get the worse of Trump’s global dealings. Says Catherine: “As cost-of-living anxieties skyrocket and lingering inflation continues to bite household budgets, these digital outlets have been especially important for low-income Americans to obtain everything from phone-chargers and prom dresses to blazers for a job interview. It may seem like trivial junk, but these ultra-cheap marketplaces can make a difference, especially in rural areas that are underserved by discount in-person retail chains.”

There may be further blowback at home if Trump decides to reimpose tariffs on Canada. As Mary Ellen Klas observes, “30% of all Florida fruit juice is exported to Canada.” It’s hard to rhyme any day of the week with the color orange, but if Canada foregoes the Sunshine State’s produce, Florida will be singing the blues.