So head-spinning is the world-changing nature of decisions from the White House at the moment that it is sometimes hard to believe this is all actually happening. Had someone said to me a few weeks ago that President Donald Trump would throw Volodymyr Zelensky out of the White House, cut off intelligence support and military assistance to Ukraine and impose 25% tariffs on both Mexico and Canada, before announcing delays and exemptions—all within one week—I would have struggled to believe them.
I expected Mr Trump to be a disrupter. He was very clear about that. And in many areas disruption is needed. But these decisions go well beyond that. Mr Trump risks destroying the trade system on which post-war prosperity has been built. He is bullying his closest allies and cosying up to the West’s enemies. To adapt Dean Acheson, it seems as if we are present at the destruction. For those of us at The Economist, where support for free trade and Atlanticism runs deep, these are shocking developments.
But I think they make our job more important than ever. That is to provide you with clear, insightful and rigorously reported news and analysis to help you make sense of where the world is headed. And it is to offer an assessment of what is happening based on the values of free trade and classical liberalism that this newspaper was founded to champion.
This week we do this in three arenas. Our cover in America, Asia and Europe focuses on Mr Trump’s economic strategy. The president says his tariffs will preserve jobs, make America richer and protect the country’s very soul. Unfortunately, in the real world things look different. Investors, consumers and companies are showing the first signs of souring on the Trumpian vision. Our leader argues that aggressive and erratic protectionism will not work. Despite Mr Trump’s talk of a roaring comeback, the markets are flashing red.
In foreign relations, as in economics, Mr Trump’s policies will cause damage at home and abroad. In Britain our cover focuses on a transformative week for Sir Keir Starmer, who has been deft and purposeful in his handling of transatlantic relations. (To illustrate the point our designers have given Sir Keir a Churchillian makeover.) In a matter of days Sir Keir has sketched a new role for Britain in the world. Now, we write, the rebuilding of European security must galvanise him and, to pay for it, he must use this programme as the organising logic for a new and radical domestic agenda.
And finally, our cover in Africa and the Middle East considers the demise of foreign aid. As a prelude to shutting down USAID, America’s main aid agency, the Trump administration denigrated it as a “criminal organisation” that was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics”. Although the way America is cutting aid is unusually and needlessly chaotic, it is part of a global trend. A new, more parsimonious era of aid is beginning. It brings with it agonising choices. But it also offers an opportunity to rethink an inefficient system that has long needed an overhaul.