If Trump's tariffs start a trade war, it would be an economic disaster | Mark Weisbrot

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

76% : The lesson is: loyalty to Trump first.
49% : But the days before Trump actually takes office could also be the best time for him to use the threat of tariffs to begin bullying foreign governments for things that might benefit his allies, donors or himself.
43% : "None of these things will happen while Trump is in office.
43% : But this is a longer story; for Trump it's just another threat and another distraction in the post-truth world that he, as much as anyone, helped create.
41% : On Sunday he took a shot at the so-called Brics countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and other economic powers: "We require a commitment from these countries," Trump wrote on Truth Social, "that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.
36% : Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank, who does not see Trump as a friend, has urged the EU to negotiate with him, rather than adopt a retaliatory, eg tariff, response.
26% : But that would defeat the main purpose of nominating people such as Matt Gaetz and probably others whom Trump has named: to force Republican senators to display the abject subservience that Trump needs to be public, in order to ensure his unwavering dominance within his party.
25% : Other governments besides the three that he named are trying to figure out what they can offer Trump to avoid the economic disruption of tariffs.
19% : The economic research looking at the expected impacts of tariffs that Trump has talked about going forward also finds the impact on the US economy to be negative.

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