Donald Trump’s political philosophy is Make America Great Again. The United States, goes the argument, has been a pushover for too long. Too many other nations have taken advantage of its generosity, is the Trump cry.

But second Trump term is likely to plunge the world into a global trade war. We know this because Trump has frequently talked about putting high tariff rates on imported goods. He did likewise during his first presidency, as Chatham House reported in 2021: “During his tenure, Trump arbitrarily imposed tariffs on all the United States’ major trading partners, launched a trade war with China, and blatantly violated the rules of the WTO – even repeatedly threatening to withdraw from the institution. Under Trump, the United States really began behaving as something of a rogue state in international trade.”

In contrast to Trump, Kamala Harris is a more mainstream, moderate, consensus politician. She will seek to strengthen the great post-WW2 institutions of rules-based global order - most notably, Nato, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the latter three being seen as essential to global financial stability and the West’s leadership in finance. Harris will want to see a strong EU as a bastion and partner against Russian expansionism and as a dependable........

© Herald Scotland