Donald Trump is teaching the world a lesson, but not the one he thinks. The attack on Iran was meant to be a dazzling display of military supremacy. It has instead illuminated chinks in the US’s armour. The US president’s formidable arsenal cannot summon up an insurrection from Iran’s tyrannised and leaderless opposition. It cannot force merchant ships to run a gauntlet of missile and drone attacks in the strait of Hormuz. The government in Tehran and the facts of geography that give it leverage over global trade are unchanged.…
Tag: US economy
Trump claims he has ‘absolute right’ to impose new tariffs after supreme court blow
Donald Trump has claimed he has “the absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US supreme court ruled many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal. The president attacked the court in a late night broadside on Sunday, accusing it of having “unnecessarily RANSACKED” the US – and failing to show him sufficient loyalty. In February, the supreme court found that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for many of the tariffs the Trump administration had put on…
As US influence wanes, the Chinese trade surplus strangles manufacturing across the globe
When the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, took to the podium at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week to lament how “great economic powers” were dismantling the international order, it seemed clear that he was talking about the United States. He might have been talking about China as well. Not a week earlier, Beijing had revealed that China’s trade surplus ballooned by 20% in 2025, to $1.2tn. Despite Donald Trump’s wall of tariffs that crashed Chinese sales to the US, its overall exports expanded more than 5%. Sales…
Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests
A year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again. The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant. Most Europeans no longer see the US as a reliable ally and are increasingly supportive of rearmament,…
The president who cried tariffs: will the US supreme court challenge Trump’s trade war?
Donald Trump thrives on emergencies. He cried havoc on the very first day of his second term, declaring a national emergency caused by an “invasion” of “illegal aliens” from Mexico. He has since invoked emergencies more than any president since the passage of the National Emergencies Act in 1976. Next Wednesday, he faces another of his own making, as the US supreme court hears oral arguments on whether his globe-shaking signature economic policy – tariffs – is legally valid. Trump sees emergency everywhere. From the flow of illegal drugs and…
Five key takeaways from Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping
As Donald Trump flew out of Busan airport in South Korea after his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, the US president sounded upbeat about progress made during less than two hours of talks. Trump discussed the outcome of the meeting, which he described as a 12 on a scale of one to 10, with “an outstanding group of decisions made”. He added: “We’ve come to a conclusion on many important points.” A Chinese statement quoted Xi saying the two countries had “good prospects for cooperation”, and relations had maintained “overall…
‘We don’t always see eye to eye’: Xi and Trump on crunch trade talks – video
Donald Trump said the US and China had agreed ‘to a lot of things’ during trade talks in South Korea, and would be having further discussions. The US president described Xi Jinping as ‘distinguished and respected’, while the Chinese leader said: ‘We do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal.’ Trump hailed the trade talks as ‘amazing’, saying the dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: layoffs for federal workers begin and president threatens China with tariffs
Mass firings of US federal workers have begun, as Republicans work to exert pressure on Democrat lawmakers to end a government shutdown. The White House budget office said the layoffs were “substantial”, with unions for federal workers taking the matter to court. President Donald Trump said of the job losses “it’ll be a lot” and suggested those losing their jobs would be in areas that were “Democrat oriented”. The government shutdown comes as the US president has revived the trade war with China, this time promising to increase tariffs on…
Chairman Trump: has the US turned its back on free-market capitalism?
When Ronald Reagan became the first US president to address China’s Great Hall of the People in 1984, he did not waste an opportunity to school his audience on the benefits of the American way. He boiled down his central economic ideology, and that of his Republican party – that governments should get out of the way, allow companies, industries and markets the space the thrive, without intervention – into a simple mantra: trust the people. “These three words are not only the heart and soul of American history, but…
US-China trade truce deadline looms threatening escalation of economic tensions
A trade truce between the US and China was set to expire on Tuesday, threatening an escalation of economic tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Chinese officials said they hoped the United States would strive for “positive” trade outcomes on Monday, as the 90-day detente reached between the two countries last month was due to expire. “We hope that the US will work with China to follow the important consensus reached during the phone call between the two heads of state … and strive for positive outcomes on the…