What Trump voters who believe the President is putting “America First” on their behalf seem to fail to understand is that his policies will be so costly that they will create enormous problems for both their country’s economy and their own households.
The imposition of tariffs on imported goods is theoretically intended to boost the competitiveness of American products within the United States. However, it will not succeed, for a number of reasons. The most obvious is that if American consumers buy a cheap imported product today, the price of which will increase due to tariffs, they will be forced to buy the same product at a higher price (if it continues to be cheaper than the American one) or the already more expensive American one, if the imported one becomes more expensive. In either case, the cost to the American consumer will increase.
In addition, countries whose products are subject to tariffs will also impose tariffs on American products, and American exports will decrease, creating problems for American industries and American producers.
The trade war that Trump started will greatly increase the cost for the whole world, including Americans, and this may create significant problems for American businesses and American citizens.
The first resounding reaction does not come from countries but from the markets themselves: the euro’s exchange rate against the dollar has taken off in recent days, reaching 1.085 from 1.025. A few days after Trump came to power, we read that the dollar was heading for parity (1 to 1). And while the fall of the dollar theoretically offers export opportunities to the American economy, the capricious tariff policy cancels out the advantage, as the columnist rightly pointed out. Markets do not forgive nonsense, DOGE and MAGA. Too bad for the average American family.
Trump embodies the old American belief that America can do it alone, it does not need anyone. This belief has always existed among a large part of the American people and in many American politicians, but it is an illusion in today’s world of free movement of capital, businesses and people. The return of protectionism benefits no one, it causes costs to increase for everyone at the same time.
The only way America really has to increase its competitiveness is the rapid development of new technologies and the depreciation of the dollar. The devaluation of the dollar will be the next event in Trump’s path, whether he has planned it or it comes as a surprise to him from the markets. And while the competitiveness of American products will increase due to devaluation, the tariffs imposed by other countries will negate this increase in competitiveness and remove the benefit from American producers. At the same time, with the disruption that Trump’s policy is creating in the global economy, we will soon see a decrease in the credibility of the US in the bond markets, resulting in the American debt crisis. Ultimately, Trump’s policy will achieve the opposite of what it aims for. It will lead the American economy to inflation, devaluation and a debt crisis. Boycotts of American products are already occurring in Europe (they started with the impressive drop in sales of Musk’s Tesla) and in Canada, they will spread everywhere and to all American products. The reason is not only the imposition of tariffs, it is the way in which Trump attacks his allies, and his behavior provokes a reaction from everyone else against the Americans.
As for Trump’s geopolitical vision, it is not shared by Europeans, Canadians, or at least half, if not all Americans. I wish a huge alliance could be built between the USA, Europe and Russia, but alliances are based on unwavering trust. And trust does not exist, on the contrary, there is a huge distrust from everyone towards everyone.
In the context of this strange geopolitical vision, the way in which the American President devalues the history of peoples and nations, is indifferent to national independence, abolishes borders that have been shaped by the sacrifices of millions of people over the centuries, targets allies with whom difficult and unbreakable alliances were built, in an effort driven by egotism and ignorance, to change the course of history, or to accelerate its gears, can only cause problems throughout the world and primarily in the United States.
It is not at all certain how things will develop in the United States and throughout the world with this subversive geopolitical strategy of Trump, but it seems impossible for the global community to suddenly accept such behavior, even from the President of the United States. And as is already evident from Europe and Canada, the world will get over the shock of his first forty days in office very quickly and will react much more forcefully than he himself thought.
Trump has the opportunity now, after impressing his voters in his first forty days, to settle on a more realistic policy and not lead the global community to extremes. If he does not, America First will lose this game.
