Donald Trump is billing April 2 as "Liberation Day", when the United States sheds the shackles of unfair competition thanks to worldwide tariffs. We test the veracity of the US president’s worldview and ask: how much is theatrics that will play well in constituencies where manufacturing jobs have disappeared? How much is a genuine sense of grievance? Or has the world’s top superpower simply grown tired of playing guarantor of global free trade? Otherwise, why test the rules of globalisation when you already dominate global tech and financial services? In the short term, the United States can inflict a lot of pain. After all, it controls the world’s most trusted currency, the almighty US dollar. Is that trust gone and gone for good? Even if it's all bargaining tactics and Trump ultimately rolls back these tariffs?

Read moreLive: Trump tariffs fuel global trade war as EU, China vow retaliation

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.