By the standards of world-historical events, Donald Trump’s Wednesday afternoon speech in the Rose Garden on his 74th day since returning to the White House started out remarkably forgettable. Trump opened the event he had billed as America’s “Liberation Day” with a rant about the dire state of the nation. It was familiar material. But, by the time Trump was finished, it was clear we’ve never actually seen anything like it. “The global trade war that he’d so long threatened and somehow never actually triggered now finally seemed to be happening,” Susan B. Glasser writes.

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By the standards of world-historical events, Donald Trump’s Wednesday afternoon speech in the Rose Garden on his 74th day since returning to the White House started out remarkably forgettable. Trump opened the event he had billed as America’s “Liberation Day” with a rant about the dire state of the nation. It was familiar material. But, by the time Trump was finished, it was clear we’ve never actually seen anything like it. “The global trade war that he’d so long threatened and somehow never actually triggered now finally seemed to be happening,” Susan B. Glasser writes.
Even as Trump spoke, the initial verdict from financial markets around the world came in and it was catastrophic—a global meltdown. The tariffs were worse than expected; stock market futures plunged; the dollar dropped against other currencies. By the close of the markets on Thursday, the damage was all too evident: U.S. stocks had recorded their biggest drop in years, losing close to three trillion dollars in value. “Amid the chaos of eviscerated retirement savings and blown-up supply chains and pissed-off allies, perhaps it’s a mistake to linger too long on the evidence of just how wrong America’s business establishment continues to be about Trump, but, wow, has this been a case of near-catastrophic wishful thinking.
“But, of course, the real mistake revealed here has little to do with global trade policy, and much to do with a failed theory of the case about Trump,” Glasser continues. “There is no rational analysis that would lead one to the conclusion that a President would single-handedly decide to blow up a century’s worth of globalization on a chilly Wednesday afternoon in April.” Read Glasser’s new column

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