What will America look like in four years’ time? Will American voters feel that Donald Trump has made America great again?

These are big questions that affect us all. How far the world’s greatest superpower progresses into isolation and authoritarianism has huge implications for global stability.

Whether by 2028 American voters will be satisfied with Trump, or whether a backlash will occur, is already the subject of intense speculation. It will determine whether the next US election is a rubber-stamping exercise for another Trumpian president or a bitter fight over what America stands for.

From an external perspective, right now, there is a strong case to be made that on tariffs, foreign policy, the green economy, public health and environmental stewardship, Trumpism is not strengthening America but weakening it.

The last fortnight has seen the US stock market buck and writhe in the wake of Trump’s decision to slap punitive tariffs on close trading partners. Any concessions he extracts look likely to be outweighed by wider economic damage and the undermining of long-standing relationships.

“The result of the Trump doctrine is a war on America’s allies,” says eminent US author and commentator Fareed Zakaria. He sees the tariff policy as a “disaster” for the US. America has thrived due to the stability produced by the western alliance and free trade. That stability disappears when Canada, Mexico and Europe can no longer trust Washington.

Read more by Rebecca McQuillan

Zakaria calls the attempt to recreate a past era of manufacturing greatness “fundamentally misconceived”.

Tariffs will raise prices for US consumers and dampen........

© Herald Scotland