Hannah Sell, the general Secretary of the Socialist Party, discusses the chaos unleashed on the world economy by Donald Trump's ‘liberation day’ tariffs.

What is the logic of the massive tariffs introduced by Trump? Despite appearances, it is not simply a question of a crazy billionaire having got the keys to the White House. Trump reflects the decline of US imperialism, still the strongest power on the planet, but increasingly less able to set the framework for the world. During Trump’s first term and under Biden, tariffs and protectionist measures increased, in an attempt to protect US markets from its global rivals. ‘Liberation Day’, however, was on a qualitatively different scale. Trump and his co-thinkers had drawn the conclusion that it is necessary to launch an offensive ‘knock-‘em-down, drag-‘em-out’ economic fight to defend US capitalism against its competitors, above all China.

When the theatrics and fantastical hyperbole now associated with the Trump presidency are set to one side, the tariff war launched on April 2 boils down fundamentally to an attempt to appropriate to US capitalism a larger share of value from the world economy at the expense of its ‘trading partners’, “friend and foe alike” as Trump himself puts it.

Read more:

Trade wars and the workers’ movement

An Editorial of Socialism Today, the monthly magazine of the Socialist Party

www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/138333/01-05-2025/socialism-today-editorial-trade-wars-and-the-workers-movement/

Trump’s tariff turmoil

An editorial of the Socialist, the weekly paper of the Socialist Party

www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/137831/14-04-2025/trumps-tariff-turmoil/

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