Is it time for Australia to consider acquiring nuclear weapons? It sounds outrageous. Stay with me.

Donald Trump is blowing up world trade. After a period of turmoil, it will probably settle into a new state where the US economy is substantially weaker. Trump is also trashing post-war alliances, including NATO, prompting US allies to decide America cannot be relied on. Europe no longer trusts the US to stand up to democracy’s enemies and will remake itself economically and militarily.

A mushroom cloud after an atomic bomb test in French Polynesia in 1971.Credit: Getty

China, Trump’s main target, will go through a difficult economic adjustment but is well-prepared and will come out on top. Beijing is already exploiting the Trump chaos, with President Xi Jinping making nice in South-East Asian capitals.

China will emerge stronger from this period of American madness and with more global influence. Trump will be gone in four years and Trumpism may be weakened, but the next US president will be unable to put the pieces back together. We are witnessing a break in history.

The chief ideologist of the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon, has........

© The Sydney Morning Herald