Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump's policy of America First is bearing fruit already. Unfortunately, it is rotten fruit and will haunt America for generations to come. He doesn't understand that the world trade and defense systems created (by America) in 1945 were also for America. Making America the central hub for everything in the world has benefited the country in uncountable many ways for 80 years. The dollar is the world's reserve currency, which means the U.S. can print money whenever it needs it. If, say, India, does this, it will just devalue its currency against others and hurt its trade. Trump has decided to throw out all the advantages the country has carefully crafted for itself for 80 years because he can't see how to personally profit from having American consumers get cheap products from abroad and having American companies get markets all over the world. Make no mistake. There is no going back now. The next Democratic president won't be able to fix this. This is true of trade, security, and other things. The best quote we have seen is from a European diplomat who said: "We cannot have the security of Europe depend on 4,000 voters in Wisconsin every 4 years." The old quote from Warren Buffett isn't too bad, either: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it."
So what has happened? Recently, the E.U. signed a major trade agreement with MERCOSUR, a dozen South American countries who are slowly building their "South American Union" modeled on the E.U. This will create an almost-free-trade zone with 700 million people in Europe and South America where the U.S. is not involved at all and has no input on what they do.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen just went to India to finalize a major trade deal between the E.U. and India. This new trade zone will have 2 billion people in it and again, the U.S. is not involved and has no influence on it. Von der Leyen called it "the mother of all trade deals." She was given a huge honorary welcome as India pivots away from the U.S. toward Europe.
The agreement on this deal, as well as MERCOSUR, will mean that the E.U. will be increasingly independent of the U.S. and doesn't have to take direction as much from the U.S. This not only reduces the U.S.' soft power in the world, but also affects markets for U.S. products. India can do business with the E.U. and not have to worry about a mad king messing everything up on a whim. Indian Prime Minister Modi understands the value of that.
It is estimated that the deal with India alone will offset about a quarter of the losses inflicted on the E.U. by Trump's tariffs. One major item is automobiles. German and French car manufacturers lost revenue due to Trump's tariffs, but if they can make it up with more exports to South America, India, and Asia, the tariffs don't bite so much and Trump's favorite weapon loses some of its potency.
Von der Leyen is undoubtedly aware that a trade deal with South Korea, Japan, and other Asian counties would be nice to add to her collection. Barack Obama was in the process of making a trade agreement with Asian countries, called the TransPacific Partnership, when he left office. It was intended as a counterweight to China. When Trump took office, he killed it. Von der Leyen now has a blueprint for her next big project. And of course, she will also work on some kind of deal with China since decoupling from the U.S. is in the interest of both the E.U. and China. Chinese President Xi Jinping also understands that. There will undoubtedly be some tough negotiations ahead on the details, but since both sides see value in making a deal, there is likely to be one in due course.
Does any of this help the U.S.? Not a whit, of course. It just reduces American power (and markets) all over the world. Just as one example, if all the countries in the various deals are required to give preference to Airbus, a European company, over Boeing (U.S.) where they have comparable products, that is sure to hurt Boeing. If software engineers in India can refine open-source software to make it as good as anything the U.S. produces, E.U. countries will favor that over buying products from Microsoft, Oracle, etc. if for no other reason that Europeans don't trust U.S. companies with data about European citizens. Bit by bit (literally, in the case of software, figuratively in other sectors), U.S. markets around the world are going to shrink, affecting employment in those sectors, profits, stock market valuations, and more. Nice move, Don. The Art of the Deal. Only it is Von der Leyen who is making all the deals. (V)