Donald Trump's policy has shifted significantly over his decades in the public sphere. But one thing that he has been consistent since the 1980s is his belief that tariffs are an effective means of strengthening the US economy.
He now relies on his presidency for being right.
At her event at the Rose Garden in the White House, surrounded by friends, conservative politicians and office secretaries, Trump announced that he was covering new tariffs for a wide range of countries – allies, competitors and opponents.
In a speech, which had equal parts holiday and self -control, regularly refined with applause from the crowd, the president recalled his long -standing support for tariffs, as well as his early criticism of free trade agreements such as Nafta and the World Trade Organization.
The president acknowledged that he would face discounts on Globalists and Special Interests in the coming days, but called on the Americans to trust their instincts.
“Never forget that every forecast that our opponents have made for trade over the last 30 years has proven to be completely wrong,” he said.
Now, in a second term in which he is surrounded by like -minded people and is the dominant force in a Republican party, which controls both congress palaces, Trump is able to turn his vision for a new trade policy aimed at America into reality. These policies, he said, had turned the United States into a wealthy nation more than a century ago and again.
“For years, hardworking American citizens have been forced to sit on the sidelines, as other nations have become rich and powerful, much of it at our expense,” he said. “With today's actions, we will finally be able to make America great again -greater than ever.”
It is still a huge risk that this president will take over.
Economists of all stripes warn that these massive rates – 53% for China, 20% for the European Union and South Korea, with a 10% base line for all countries – will be handed over with US consumers, raising prices and threatening a global recession.
Ken Rojgoff, the former chief economist in the International Monetary Fund, predicts that the world's chances, the largest economy in the world, falling into a recession, has increased to 50% on the back of this message.
“He just launched a nuclear bomb on the world trading system,” Mr. Roggof told the BBC World Service, adding that the consequences for this level of taxes on imports in the US “were simply stunning.”
Trump's move is also at risk of escalating trade war with other countries and alienating allies with which America otherwise tried to strengthen the connections. The United States, for example, see Japan and South Korea as overlapping against Chinese expansionist ambitions. But these three countries have recently announced that they will work together to respond to trade policies in America.
However, if Trump was successful, he would essentially reshape a global economic order that America originally helped to build the ashes of World War I.
This is a high order – and the one that many consider to be extremely unrealistic. But for a president who seems to be focused on cementing his inheritance, whether by ending wars, renaming geographical locations, acquisition of new territory or dismantling federal programs and its workforce, this is the greatest, most subsequent award to be won.
It will be, he shaped, “The Day of the Liberation of America.”
What seems clear, however, is that the message on Wednesday, if followed, is almost certain that it will mark a historical change. The question is whether this will be an inheritance of achievement or fame.
Trump's speech was triumphant – the one that disproves the potentially high costs that his movements will impose on the US economy and his own political situation.
But, he said, it's worth it – even at the very end of his remarks, a small shadow of presidential doubt may have reached the Bravado.
“It will be a day that – hopefully – you will look back in years and say, you know, he was right.”