...and this is not all that I think an unhinged Trump 2.0 is capable of.
...you think America will not continue to weaponise its tariff policy to demand other countries to do what it wants, with recent examples set for Venezuelan oil, Iran's nuclear programme, and tying tariffs to its foreign policies?
...you think American overtures on making Greenland and Canada part of the US is a mere joke?
...you think America that is now purely selfish and transactional will come to the rescue of its allies without anything to gain from?
...you think America will not swap their allies holdings of US Treasuries for zero coupon longer term tenure?
...you think America will not devalue its currency next?
...you think America is not evolving into an autocracy, with Congress now almost made impotent with Executive orders at the will of the President with supreme power?
...for many Trump supporters who only wanted a return to the world they once knew, less the immigration problems and the wokeness in society, these are more worse outcomes than what they bargained for.
...and as far as leaders are concerned, most apt to state now that it may be better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
...this is why I previously said, the CHARACTER of the person is far more important than any promises he can make.
...a leopard will never change its spots. How Trump has soured my American dream
There was a chilling edge to the president’s declaration this would be “an entirely different country within a short period of time”. Jennifer HewettColumnist
Apr 3, 2025 – 4.35pm
For someone who has always loved the energy and enthusiasm and optimism of America, there was a chilling edge to Trump’s declaration that this would be “an entirely different country within a short period of time”.
It’s no longer enough to say that almost half of America didn’t vote for him. That tens of millions of Americans are just as outraged by their president. It feels personally bruising that Trump gives those who like to blame America good reason to do so more loudly, and the fans of the US feel so betrayed.
Trump rode to office on widespread dissatisfaction with the Biden administration, particularly the failure to limit illegal immigration and to protect Americans from inflation and the hollowing out of manufacturing jobs. He used his extraordinary showmanship to great effect on the campaign trail. Now he is using it to change America more quickly and more radically than even his opponents warned.
Yes, there is some domestic resistance. Witness the Wisconsin vote for a liberal Supreme Court judge despite the $US25 million ($39 million) provided by Elon Musk to engineer a conservative win. There will also be even more black humour attacking Trump on late night TV shows. Democrats will show more spine.
But here’s one downside to American exceptionalism – the instinct to concentrate on the vast range of things happening within the country rather than outside it. All nations look inward to an extent, but the notion of America “as the indispensable nation” in global leadership is buried in the Trump avalanche.
It means most opposition to this president has been focused on domestic issues rather than the upheaval threatening other countries, especially Asian allies.
My son, an Australian-American citizen living in Washington, says his friends are more alarmed by cuts to federal programs, departments and jobs.
“Tariffs aren’t the main conversation,” he says. “It’s just part of the collective crazy. Everyone is fatigued by the amount of stuff happening around them. They are worried about their jobs, or immigrants being sent back, or the abolition of whole departments.
“How the tariffs will affect other countries doesn’t seem that important to many people compared to everything else.”
Primary fear
My sister-in-law in New York hates Trump so much she locked herself in her bedroom rather than watch the Republican convention with me on TV last July. Her primary fear is that she doesn’t believe his promises that he won’t touch her social security pension benefits.
Another American friend laments the “cultural assault” on universities and the Smithsonian Institution and federal agencies, even down to banning books on the basis that they represent a DEI agenda. Prompted, he adds that tariffs will be very bad for the US economy – “and possibly for the rest of the world”.
But to the extent the rest of the world does figure in US thinking, many other Americans still accept Trump’s argument that other countries have treated the US unfairly and that the renewed strength of the American economy will make up for imports.
This sense of confidence about a self-sustaining economy in the US – and their own incomes – is likely to change abruptly as the real costs to American consumers and businesses become clearer.
The immediate big falls in sharemarkets across the world are just the beginning.
“It will be catastrophic,” predicts a more internationally minded friend.
Trump may say he is more interested in Main Street than Wall Street, but he boasts of how much the sharemarket went up in his first term. His erratic style means reversals are possible. But Trump is correct in saying he has been consistent about tariffs as an economic panacea for 40 years.
In an almost hour-long address, he lamented the start of US income taxes in 1913 rather than continuing to rely on money from tariffs. In his distorted view, America’s Smoot-Hawley tariffs that worsened the 1930s depression just weren’t enough. ‘Trump Unplugged’
Yet even in his first term in office, he mostly limited his pro-tariff agenda to China’s imports, renegotiating the free trade deal with Canada and Mexico and imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium – with many, many exceptions.
In his second term, it’s “Trump Unplugged”.
The domestic economic impact of massive tariffs imposed on US allies, as well as countries such as China, may yet bridge some of the divide between currently despised “globalists” and the “America first” crowd. But certainly not yet.
“I am struggling to communicate just how nuts all of this is,” said one appalled MSNBC presenter.
But on Fox News, trade adviser Peter Navarro insisted tariffs are not aimed at forcing countries to do deals and make concessions – as some in the market are hoping.
“This is not a negotiation,” he said. “This is a national emergency.”
This mindset means Trump’s allegations of “non-tariff barriers and currency manipulation” being even worse than other countries’ tariffs allows open-ended punishment from the US. Yet, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warns retaliation by countries will only bring worse retribution.
When I was a student at the Trump-targeted Columbia University, where I met my future American husband and future AFR columnist Peter Ruehl covering the America’s Cup in Rhode Island, and when I lived in Maryland with my family, I enjoyed deep, lasting friendships and a life-long infatuation with the range of possibilities as well as insanities and inanities on spectacular show.
I admired America’s ability to constantly reinvent itself and thrive against the pessimists.
I hope this will happen again as the pendulum inevitably swings back against Trump’s dark rage and narcissism. But much of the damage already seems permanent.
