What is the Trump administration really after?

In an economic war nobody wins.

The classic definition of an economic war : "a confrontation between states or power blocs in which economic instruments are used as a weapon to undermine the adversary without resorting directly to military conflict". Protectionism, translated as increasing tariffs, is one of the characteristics of this war started by Donald Trump against someone .....no se s know .In a Hollywood-type scenario, with friends and allies unscrupulous plunderers, his reign appears (the white horse is missing!) and wants to restore justice and prosperity to the American people by dividing left and right, north and south, taxes as bullets .Me, I had just gotten used to his role of universal "peacemaker", which ,what to see?, has failed miserably.

Now we return to the John Wayne role of import taxes. Donald is playing it well this time, blaming all the "villains" of the free world. Not well enough, however, to hide the real and undeniable “guilt” of the creators of the current world order — the neoliberal global order based on free trade — who are none other than the Americans themselves, led by (surprise!) Ronald Reagan, supported by the Republicans on one hand, and Margaret Thatcher with the British Conservatives on the other!

Almost 90% of China's manufacturing industry was created with Western funds and know-how (not just American), and the profits… where are the profits, Donald? Does the American people — so frequently invoked — even know where the money of those American super-billionaires is? The ones who made immeasurable fortunes by producing in China and taking the bread out of American workers’ mouths? Could it be in tax havens, maybe…?

Take Apple, for example — this wonderful company paid and still pays just a couple of lousy dollars in taxes in the USA, considering that production happens in China and the fiscal headquarters is on Jersey Island (a well-known tax haven). Even so, is Apple going to pay these new customs duties? A huge part of the world's electronics are produced in China, even if under American, Japanese, etc., brands. The ones who stripped dear and beloved America of jobs and public revenue — thus creating the massive deficit — are in fact the very billionaires that (ironically) Mr. Trump wants to give more tax breaks to, since they’re apparently so poor and upset that Americans don’t have jobs (or so I’ve gathered!).

In the speeches of our much-honored and dearly beloved leader, the names of these big moguls are never mentioned — because they’re the ones behind him. Have you ever heard, in any of his speeches in Congress or at Mar-a-Lago, anything about the tax havens where more than half of the wealth and capital of the “civilized” world is hidden — untaxed — tens of thousands of trillions of dollars!?!?

By the way, Donald, where might your money be?

I understand that America, strapped and overtaxed as it is, can no longer afford to keep so many soldiers and combat equipment in Europe because it wants to focus more on the Asia-Pacific region. What I don’t understand, then, is why you're taxing all Asian countries — including Taiwan — at criminal levels (32%)!!??

So again I ask: who exactly are the Americans planning to defend in Asia!!?? There's a logical fracture here that, frankly, escapes me — no matter what ideological or economic structure of support you claim to have

All the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration will end up backfiring on the American people through rising consumer product prices. I believe these increases will hit hardest those in the lower class, who will now be expected to work in the new American industry. In the end, the entire global economy will reorient and restructure itself — potentially by avoiding America, not by bowing down to it.

Although the global economic system was designed, developed, and sponsored by the USA, it has now reached a point where America has peaked and begun to decline, while China (for example) is on the verge of surpassing the U.S. and will continue to grow. And it’s not just China that is rising. All of this is due to Western neoliberalism and the doctrine of profit at all costs, without regard for anything else.

On top of that, there's also the hiding of those profits in tax havens, crippling national budgets by avoiding taxation. The entire neoliberal model of free trade has been unfolding — and continues to unfold — under the umbrella of American military protection across all the world’s oceans and continents, and based on the U.S. dollar being the universal transaction (exchange) currency.

But all these current American military bases (around 700 worldwide) are no longer economically or militarily justified, because the current American economic system can no longer physically and materially support American military power in the event of a war. That’s precisely why Trump and his ideologues are trying to bring production back to America, realizing that, at this moment, Chinese shipyards are producing more ships in a single year than the Americans did after World War II. And that’s just one example — as even “Prince” Vance said (well, it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but there are truly massive differences)!

At the same time, China is no longer just about manufacturing. Over the past fifteen to twenty years, it has strategically invested colossal material and human resources into technological research. Shenzhen, for example, is a city with over five million engineers who research and develop new high-tech solutions. Right now, for instance, they're redesigning and reimagining car factories with the help of AI.Should we even start talking about Deep Seek!?

Another aspect that seems to have been poorly considered: a large part of the world that is currently rising and developing comes from places where shortages of all kinds, material and spiritual suffering, and human rights violations are far more commonplace than in America.

Russia, which is far from being a democracy, sends hundreds of thousands of young people to die in war and doesn't care much. In China during the Cultural Revolution, people died of hunger by the millions; and as for human rights in China — what more is there to say? “Long live the CCP”?

As a result, in a critical or extreme situation, how many Americans or Europeans are still willing to endure restrictions, shortages, and even make the ultimate sacrifice in the case of a real war? Or let’s put it another way: How much will the American people and their democratic immune system be able to withstand the 'great' results of the current government?

The great empire in decline would like to reset the current global economic model while maintaining its global military power and influence. I understand the problem, but I don’t understand the solution — or the method. The current MAGA strategy will only serve to create new alliances and economic treaties between countries that otherwise wouldn’t even be talking to each other — take Europe with the UK-France-Germany alliance, South Korea and Japan, China and Russia, Iran and Russia, etc.

First and foremost, the U.S. should be engaging in serious dialogue with Europe, the UK, Canada, and Australia to create a common plan to save democracies, rather than imposing autocratic models. A new model is needed — one that eliminates hypocrisy, corruption, and boundless greed, as well as the artificial tax havens that only serve the endlessly wealthy.

At the same time, the U.S. should sit at the table with the BRICS countries, which (whether we like it or not) represent more than 60% of the world’s population and now account for over 35% of global GDP.

With its current actions, the Trump Administration is only accelerating America’s downfall. Bringing production back to the U.S. in an isolationist and protectionist environment will only worsen the problems instead of solving them. The world will seek out alternative solutions — with or without America — and in the end, it will succeed.

The greatest danger, in the case of an American failure, would be the creation of other conflicts — more or less artificial, potentially even military — in order to maintain dominance at any cost.

In the end, let’s hope that, perhaps, the antibodies of American democracy will awaken in time and heal America from its current extremist and totalitarian tendencies.