New Delhi: “It’s the economy, stupid!” was the defining message in the 1992 US presidential campaign. Coined by Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, James Carville, the postulation rings true today like never before.

US President Donald Trump has reset the global trade order bringing in a new alarming sense of unilateralism to tariffs. As the world paces to decode the impact of the Trump tariff card, it is clear that multilateralism has been buried down under. Under the weight of the tariff tsunami, world trade bodies are scurrying for cover.

The Trump order has not come totally unexpected but what is an element of total surprise is the acute element of bilateralism that would determine the trade reset among nations.

While trade pundits get to assess the full impact country wise, let us for a moment get to pivot away from economics to politics. Let us begin with Trump himself. He has played perfectly to his core constituency telling it that he is the ultimate boss man, an avatar he has donned to ‘Make America Great Again’. The messaging from his camp will get louder in the days to come when he is positioned as a leader who defies his friends and foes alike to put America first in his scheme of things.

Any legitimate outcry on very likely fears of inflation soaring coinciding with recession engulfing America would be sought to be drowned in the cacophony of ‘Make America Great........

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