Open For Business

Trump, unlike his predecessors, hasn’t started wars, but he has sown disruption by weaponizing the U.S. economy

- Ben Holland

Donald Trump has become quite comfortable deploying the U.S. economy both as lure and as threat. In London on a state visit, he tweeted that the U.K. could expect a “big Trade Deal” with the U.S. once it “gets rid of the shackles” to the European Union. In the previous week, a short one in Washington because of the Memorial Day holiday, he still found time to escalate hostilities in America’s economic war with just about everyone.

The countries of the EU had already been in that firing line. On May 29 news broke that Trump had threatened them with sanctions on the grounds that they’re attempting—not very successfully—to trade with Iran, as they are entitled to do under international law. The next day, Trump warned Mexico that he would impose tariffs on all its exports to the U.S. and steadily ratchet them up until Mexico shuts down the northward flow of migrants. On June 1, he removed India from a list of developing countries that receive special trade privileges because it hasn’t done enough to open its markets to U.S. companies. The New York Times reported on June 2 that Trump had considered tariffs on Australian aluminum until the Pentagon objected.

The salvos were sideshows to what’s becoming the main event in the second half of Trump’s term: his campaign to rewrite the rules by which the U.S. trades with China. But all of Trump’s tariffs, sanctions, and trade policies show how the president has broadened his definition of national security to include the U.S. economy, which he’s turned into a weapon to use against allies as well as his main strategic rival.