With the rollout of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, foreign countries’leaders are faced with two options.

One: A rational person would consider the option of lowering his pre-existing import tariffs to avoid the incoming export tariffs on products being sent to the American market, as Israel just did and as Vietnam has offered to do.

Two: A non-rational person (i.e., leftists) would challenge the president head-on by threatening to escalate his existing tariffs, creating a tariff war.

As the world’s largest economy, and with many of these foreign countries dependent on exports to the U.S. to drive their economic fortunes, engaging in an escalating tariff war with the United States is a fool’s errand.  If this is the case, why would a foreign leader pursue this strategy?  

For insight into this pursuit, let me quote Chinese strategist Sun Tzu:“Burn it down to rule over the ashes.”

America’s trading partners can’t win an increasingly ratcheted trade war, but they can damage the president (and America) while simultaneously destroying their own economies.  A Faustian bargain, if you will.  But would the globalist left pursue this almost certain worldwide economic collapse?  Absolutely!

Leftist leaders from China, Canada, and the European Union may calculate that their petulance, while damaging to their own economies, might create the circumstances whereby they can destroy our economy, damage Donald Trump and Republicans, and provide the Democrats a path to electoral victory in ’26 and ’28.

A tariff economic realignment, where America begins to build out its manufacturing base, create a prosperous middle class, and become self-sufficient is a country that is no longer dependent on the whims of foreign allies and adversaries.

I can picture Barack Obama whispering in the ear of China’s Xi, Canada’s Mark Carney, and the E.U.’s Ursula von der Leyen: Stay tough in response to President Trump’s tariffs.  I will have more flexibility in 2028.

Will rational heads prevail, or will the globalist left burn it all down in hopes of ruling over the ashes?

Image: Old Photo Profile via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.