CNN
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On Day 4, President Donald Trump set out to impose his will on the world.
RaptEuropean elites watched President Trump virtually board the Swiss alpine village of Davos on Thursday, a metaphor for a world that has taken with terrifying fascination with Trump’s testosterone-fueled return to power. .
The system was perfect for the president. On a giant screen, the ultimate outsider literally towered over the reprimanded audience of bankers, financiers, businessmen, NGO leaders, political tycoons and diplomats.
The appearance at the World Economic Forum was President Trump’s latest confident move to reshape America’s destiny after a week of frenetic executive action and surprisingly freewheeling press conferences.
He issued his most explicit threat yet to impose tariffs on European exports, set nearly unattainable targets for countries’ NATO defense spending, and once again pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. He tried to get him to participate in negotiations towards China, and then, as a carrot, he rushed to get close to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
But Thursday’s speech may go down in history because President Trump gave the Davos crowd its most vivid vision yet of America’s new role in the world.
“He was elected to be a disruptor,” former British foreign secretary David Miliband told CNN’s Christian Amanpour from Davos.
Mr Miliband, now CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said: “He has promised to disrupt the way things are done, both in the United States and internationally.” “He’s been consistent with that throughout the campaign, throughout the transition period and through the first three days.”
President Trump has repeatedly referred to his country as a “sovereign” nation, insisting that in a new “golden age,” the United States will pursue its sole national interests exclusively. This is the MAGA code for the United States to act alone, rather than through the international Bretton Woods organization that Washington established to make the world safe for democracy and promote prosperity for all peoples after World War II. . President Trump argued that this approach was justified because “a lot of things have been unfair to America over the years.”
He made clear that from now on, all U.S. foreign policy will involve a value calculation that assesses how it benefits Americans. Other countries and multinationals do not have to play ball, but if they choose not to play ball, they will be subject to penalties, including tariffs.
Moreover, America is so powerful and resource-rich that it doesn’t need other countries. For example, he said of Canada: “We don’t need Canada to make our cars. … We don’t need their wood because we have our own forests etc. We don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need their oil or gas because we have our own forests etc. I have a lot of things.”
President Trump has a particular ire against the European Union, complaining bitterly that its regulatory practices stifle growth (and interfere with his personal business interests). He has complained about taxes and restraints placed on Google, Apple and Meta in Europe, and has suggested that he views the tech oligarchs he has brought into his inner circle as tools of American power. “Whether you like it or not, these are American companies. They are American companies and they shouldn’t do things like that.”
President Trump demands more from NATO members
President Trump revealed his transactional nature with his latest salvo on NATO.
He formally called on member states to more than double their defense spending to 5% of GDP. That’s a number that would bankrupt many Western economies or require governments to desecrate the expensive welfare states characteristic of Europe’s social democratic ethos, which his “Make America Great Again” movement has long despised. .
Later, when an Oval Office reporter pointed out that the United States spends only about 3.4 percent on defense, Trump responded, “We’re protecting them, and they’re not protecting us.” President Trump has maintained a bellicose stance, and the last time the alliance’s Article V mutual defense clause was invoked was after the September 11 attacks in 2001, when allies lost troops in the US war on terror. I ignored the fact that it was just that.
Trump also doubled down on warnings in his first days in office that he views countries like Panama, Canada and the vast Danish territory of Greenland as part of the U.S. sphere of interest.
In an unusual move for a U.S. president to address an international audience, Trump complained about the trade deficit with Canada and renewed his call for Canada to join the United States. “I say you can always become a state, and if you become a state, you won’t run a deficit.” There is no chance that Canada, a rival country to the United States, will become the 51st state. However, the reason why President Trump’s threatening language is so deviant is that it violates the principle that the United States enshrines in the United Nations Charter that “all nations are equal sovereigns.”
President Trump’s “America First” philosophy is often described as a return to the kind of isolationism that prevailed during the two world wars. But that’s not very accurate. He wants to move onto the world stage. But he advocates a foreign policy in which the United States maintains dominance in its own hemisphere and engages selectively in other regions.
New Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained this this week. “Our job is to ensure a foreign policy that promotes the national interests of the United States. I expect every nation on earth to advance its national interests. …Our national interests and their national interests. I hope there are many matches.”
In other words, the United States is prepared to cooperate with other countries when necessary—rather than through international organizations that would weaken the United States’ power—cooperating individually would give the United States advantages in size, wealth, and military power. means.
This, combined with President Trump’s belief that great powers act with primacy within their spheres of influence and the United States’ growing obsession with territorial expansion, is a fairly 19th-century concept. So is President Trump’s determination to use tariffs to revitalize the American economy, fulfilling his campaign promises to improve living standards and lower prices.
The president warned business leaders at Davos that “if you don’t make your products in the United States, that’s our prerogative, but quite simply, you’re going to have to pay tariffs.” . He said the tariffs would “pour hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars into the Treasury to strengthen our economy.”
His comments effectively declared a trade war against the European Union, not only because it seeks to make imports less competitive than American products, but also because it seeks to attract jobs and industry from across the Atlantic.
Tariffs were used for most of the country’s first 150 years. They were a particular favorite of Trump’s new favorite president, William McKinley. Mr. McKinley, a Republican like Mr. Trump, was an imperialist who led the political reorganization of industrial states and added the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii to the U.S. real estate portfolio.
In recent days, President Trump has made multiple references to McKinley, who served from 1897 until his assassination in 1901, and signed an executive order restoring the original name of Denali, Alaska, to Mount McKinley.
“President McKinley made our country so rich through tariffs and talent,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday.
The president’s repeated warnings about impending tariffs have led to the assumption that he is simply posing the threat as leverage to win short-term concessions in trade talks with Mexico, Canada, the European Union and others. It raises questions. But his comments Thursday suggest this is a more permanent tool. Still, he has yet to acknowledge the concerns of many economic experts who believe high U.S. tariffs will raise prices for Americans and destroy the global economy.
One of the most eloquent arguments for high comprehensive tariffs was made by Franklin Roosevelt during his 1932 presidential campaign. In a speech in Seattle, FDR said that the tariffs introduced by President Herbert Hoover under pressure from Republican hardliners would have the “inevitable result of retaliation by the rest of the world” and put the United States on a “road to ruin.” He explained that he was leading the way.
“Neighboring Canada has imposed retaliatory duties on your peaches, so the tariff on peaches is now higher than the freight to Canada,” he explained. And retaliatory tariffs on asparagus and other vegetables and fruits are so high that they effectively cannot sell their produce to their logical customers, their neighbors across the border. The market for surplus products is destroyed and a fair price for the entire crop becomes impossible. ”
FDR’s warning provides guidance for Trump’s critics today. And many of America’s long-held principles, from trade to international relations that the 47th president seeks to dismantle, stem from the foundations of the modern, American-led world order laid by the 32nd president. This is appropriate because there are
