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The War Against All

The War Against All
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksJune 01, 2018
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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Donald Trump is the first US president since the 1930s to reject the assumption that global leadership serves the US national interest. With today’s imposition of steel tariffs on the EU, Canada, and Mexico, he’s also taking a whole new approach to conflict.

Three quick thoughts:

  1. When headed into a fight, US presidents are traditionally quick to highlight the number and reliability of US allies, in part to reassure American voters that friendly governments agree on the need to fight and will share the costs and risks that fight entails. Trump, by contrast, wants Americans (and the world) to know that “friends are for snowflakes.”

  2. As Republican Senator Ben Sasse noted on Thursday, Trump is using the same tool — steel and aluminum tariffs — against US allies that he’s using against China, a strategic competitor.

  3. He’s ready to go toe-to-toe on trade with Europe, China, Canada, Mexico, and others simultaneously.

Is he right? Will this bold approach to putting America first benefit American workers and the US economy? We’re about to find out.

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