As President Trump continues his mission to upend the existing global international economic and security order, the UK is in a fairly weak position on the edge of the European continent. Some suggest that Trump’s damagingly bizarre parade of tariffs on countries (inhabited or not) around the world show, at last, a Brexit benefit. This is not serious.

The UK’s lower tariff rate than the EU is, in Trump’s "liberation day" pseudo-economics, due to its goods trade with the US being roughly in balance. But neither that nor any partial, be-nice-to-big-tech, US-UK trade deal will protect the UK from the global fall-out from Trump’s crashing of international economic relations. And while Trump’s economics looks like Liz Truss on steroids, as stock markets fall around the world, there’s no chance that a lettuce will last longer than Trump.

Trump may, perhaps, retreat a bit from some tariffs as the economic damage spirals, and as some countries aim to agree a deal of sorts. But China already retaliated last Friday with 34% genuinely-reciprocal tariffs on the US. And Canada announced a 25% tariff on US cars. It’s clear this new age of disorder is here to stay. Even the cautious Keir Starmer, in the face of Trump’s actions, admitted last week we are in a new economic and security era. And it is one full of uncertainty and risk.

Given Trump’s uneven but Russia-biased attempts to drive a peace deal in Ukraine,........

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