gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
—
President Donald Trump is doing exactly what he said he’d do.
He’s launching hard-power trade wars to please voters marginalized by the globalized economy. He’s acting on despair over fentanyl’s murderous toll. He’s launched a migrant crackdown amid anxiety over a porous southern border. And the president, with the help of Elon Musk, is starting to gut the government that his supporters blame for their problems.
“When a president is elected by the People and then does what he promised to do, that’s democracy,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X on Saturday night. “When a president is thwarted by unelected bureaucrats, that’s oligarchy. President Trump refuses to bend the knee to that oligarchy. Buckle up!”
Yet Trump’s frantic push to honor campaign promises by a plurality of voters may come with a price.
Abroad, it threatens to compromise traditional American leadership and obligations the country has long set for itself, which are vital to the functioning of the global economy. International agreements and undertakings made to allies are also in peril — like the North American trade deal Trump trampled with huge new tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the treaty under which the US handed over control of the Panama Canal.
And at home, a quickening purge of federal government workers and erratic spending decisions have already called into question assistance that’s critical to the well-being of millions of citizens, as well as the legality of ousting scores of federal workers to fulfill Trump’s political whims.
As Trump’s second presidency enters its third week, there are growing questions over whether his radical disruption — which often flouts generations of US policy and even challenges the law — will fix any of the problems he was elected to solve.
Could it instead cleave deeper national divides, create economic chaos and pain for consumers — who elected him, in part, to lower prices — spike job losses, and leave America isolated after alienating its best friends in the world and destroying the international order?
Trump won’t hear of such talk. You can argue with his grasp of economics. But he’s promising a complete overhaul of the global, free trade economy and a rebuilding of the US manufacturing base — even if it throws American allies into economic crises.
The days of a rising tide lifting all boats are over.
“MAKE YOUR PRODUCT IN THE USA AND THERE ARE NO TARIFFS!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “Why should the United States lose TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN SUBSIDIZING OTHER COUNTRIES.”
Trump is making huge gambles with America’s future
Trump announced 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and 10% levies on Chinese imports that are due to come into force at 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The president said Sunday evening that he plans to speak to leaders in Canada and Mexico on Monday, though gave no sign he’d change his mind.
“I don’t expect anything very dramatic. We put tariffs on. They owe us a lot of money, and I’m sure they’re going to pay,” Trump told reporters as he stepped off Air Force One.
His faith in tariffs — a familiar device that helped speed the descent into the 1930s Great Depression — represents a huge gamble.
“This is a self-inflicted wound to the American economy,” former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.” Summers, who served under Democratic President Bill Clinton, added: “I’d expect inflation over the next three or four months to be higher as a consequence, because the price level has to go up when you put a levy on goods that people are buying.”
Dismantling government can also be dangerous. A temporary spending freeze, hurriedly withdrawn by the White House last week, hinted at mayhem that could ensue if federal services on which millions depend go away.
Trump’s biggest moves so far reflect some of his lifelong obsessions, including a tendency to exert power over weaker adversaries. His supporters insist it works — citing Colombia’s retreat last week, in a showdown over migrant deportations, under the threat of economy-destroying US tariffs. They also credit Trump’s warning that “all hell will break lose” in the Middle East for recent the hostage releases by Hamas in Gaza.
But Trump’s extraordinary steps to transform US domestic and foreign policy at lightning pace also pose political and economic risks. His wielding of vast executive power could come across as an overreach that ignores voters’ most pressing concerns. And he risks driving US allies into the arms of adversaries like China.
It all amounts to a stunning blitz of economic, diplomatic and domestic power, happening by design at a fearsome pace, often without public transparency, that is almost impossible for citizens to process.
Trump’s power moves are shaking North America and the rest of the world
- The president this weekend announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and imposed 10% tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States. He’s also renewing his demand that Canada become the 51st state. Trump has been coercing Denmark to hand over Greenland and Panama to give up control over its canal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Panama’s president Sunday that Washington would take “measures necessary to protect its rights” under the Panama Canal Treaty because Hong Kong-based firms own two ports near either end of the key waterway. Trump later warned: “We’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen.”
- Trump has also frozen US foreign aid, which has been maintained for decades on the principle that fighting starvation, poverty and illness fosters global stability that makes Americans safer. Nongovernmental organizations are struggling to work out which services qualify for a State Department humanitarian waiver. The US Agency for International Development’s website just went dark. And Musk declared over the weekend on X that the agency responsible for saving millions of lives is “a criminal organization.” He added: “Time for it to die.” CNN reported on Sunday that top security officials at USAID were put on administrative leave after attempting to refuse access to agency systems to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency officials.
- At home, as it cranks up the pace of mass deportations, the administration Sunday revoked protection for 300,000 Venezuelans, leaving them vulnerable to being deported to their repressive, impoverished homeland.
- Trump’s teams have accelerated a purge among law enforcement officials, firing more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on January 6, 2021, cases and demanding names of FBI agents ordered to work on Trump cases — a move that could potentially put the careers and livelihoods of thousands in peril.
- Musk, the tech pioneer who has billions of dollars in contracts and potential conflicts of interest with the US government, stoked more disruption. His DOGE team has accessed the federal payments system, potentially allowing him to monitor and limit government spending, after the top civil servant at the Treasury Department — who had pushed back on questions about stopping certain payments — left unexpectedly last week.
Trump’s new trade wars encapsulate his unrestrained use of power and show how his beliefs contradict decades of conventional US global leadership.
The massive tariffs he plans to impose on Canada and Mexico on Tuesday can be traced back to his long-held belief that America is being ripped off by almost every other nation.
The tariffs’ ostensible purpose is to punish American allies for failing to do more to crack down on undocumented migration and fentanyl reaching the United States.
Many Trump supporters see the president’s love for “beautiful” tariffs as leverage to force concessions from other countries and to allow him to deliver “wins,” which often seem less meaty than he claims.
But this time, the imposition of tariffs is being billed as a victory in itself. “These are promises made and promises kept by the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.
But the win will come at a cost.
Canada said Saturday it would impose retaliatory tariffs on more than $100 billion in American imports. Several top provincial politicians, meanwhile, urged Canadians to start boycotts of US products, including wine and liquor.
Mexico is vowing to unveil its own response Monday. President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Sunday that talks, and not confrontation, are the best ways to solve problems. She said: “Sovereignty is not negotiable.”
While tensions have long boiled between the US and Mexico over border issues, problems at the northern border seem negligible.
According to US Customs and Border Protection statistics, only 43 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the northern border last year, compared with more than 21,000 pounds captured at the southwest border. And Canada has already pledged to spend $1 billion on an enhanced border patrol operation.
Why is Trump turning on one of America’s best friends?
This begs the question of whether America’s No. 1 foreign priority is really addressing a threat from Canada, with which the US enjoys its most comprehensive trading partnership.
Trump’s turn against Canada — which effectively trashes the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that he signed in his first term and declared a great victory — risks pitching the economy of a trusted ally into a deep recession and costing hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers.
And while Mexico and Canada are in a vulnerable position because of their smaller economies, they can still hurt the US. Their retaliatory tariffs could raise prices on key goods — even as Trump vows to lower grocery costs for US shoppers.
Trump’s tariff attacks on Mexico and Canada also reverse a decadeslong project to integrate the US and Canadian economies — part of a broader US foreign policy goal of building a rules-based global order of free nations meant to promote prosperity and democracy.
In Canada’s case, this has meant coming to America’s defense, in its greatest hours of need — including after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday. “That rang true for many decades … from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar.”
Trump, however, seeks far greater control over the Western Hemisphere — which, together with his love of tariffs, is creating a 19th century vibe.
“Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday from Florida, where he twice visited one of his golf courses over the weekend.
But the president’s threats are backfiring.
“It’s an act of economic warfare. And the president was clear just this morning that it is a direct attack on our sovereignty,” former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday. Freeland, a candidate for the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party, and therefore to replace Trudeau as prime minister, added: “Americans are going to be astonished by the Canadian response. We’re hurt, for sure, because we’re your friends and neighbors. But most of all, we’re angry, and we are united and resolute.”
Still, Trump isn’t hiding what he wants, and right now, he is wielding almost unaccountable power.
“We are led by someone who is not very mysterious. He’s going to tell you what he’s going to do and he’ll actually do it,” Rubio said on Sirius XM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” last week.
Or, as Vance put it: “Buckle up.”
