Leaders| Ruination Day
President Trump’s mindless tariffs will cause economic havoc
But the rest of the world can limit the damage
An illustration of Trump carving a U.S.-shaped hole beneath his feet, symbolizing that he may be on the verge of falling in.
image: Alberto Miranda
IF YOU failed to spot America being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” or it being cruelly denied a “turn to prosper”, then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the President of the United States. It’s hard to know which is more unsettling: that the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy. Or the fact that on April 2nd, spurred on by his delusions, Donald Trump announced the biggest break in America’s trade policy in over a century—and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.