How Trump’s unpredictability could backfire
Trump’s relentless bullying of America’s friends – while seemingly doing everything he can to advance its traditional adversary Russia in Ukraine – may also drain US power in the long run.
“What we have seen this week is that the dollar has suffered a very sharp decline,” Ruchir Sharma, founder and chief investment officer of Breakout Capital, told Richard Quest on CNN International. “It’s revealing that the rest of the world is getting its act together … and I think investors are beginning to notice there are other countries worth investing in, given all this policy volatility that is emerging in the US,” he said.
The danger for the US therefore is that four more years of Trump’s antics could reshape the globe – in a way that does not comply with his vision of US dominance but leaves Americans looking in from the outside. Mexico and Canada, for instance, can’t change the geography that makes it a no-brainer to trade with the mighty US. But both also may see advantages in expanding trade and investment with America’s rising rival China. And the European Union, which is expecting its own barrage of Trump tariffs soon, may examine similar horizons.
America’s Western allies have too much invested in generations with ties with Washington to want it to fail. But they have their own national interests too. Canada can’t win a trade war against its more powerful neighbor. But its patience is thin over Trump’s brinkmanship and bullying.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, home to Canada’s largest provincial economy, says the only way forward is for Trump to eradicate all tariffs rather than an a la carte easing of duties industry by industry, as with autos.
“All this gives us is uncertainty again,” Ford told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Wednesday. “There is one person that’s causing that problem today: that’s President Trump.”
Be First to Comment