Trade Wars

Soon after DJT was declared the winning presidential candidate of the November 2024 US elections, from the bottom tip of Africa, I felt gross pity for American public. How could they have missed my earlier appraisal of Trump? This win reminded me of a 2008 statement by an iconic retired South African jurist, Justice Johann Kriegler, when he told Kenyans that they get leaderships the deserve in response to the violence that engulfed the country after the contested general elections in the East African nation.

a presidency of chaos and contradictions

Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, 2025, marked the beginning of an unprecedented era of disruption. Within 116 days, his administration had signed over 150 Executive Orders, many of which were hastily drafted, poorly conceived, or outright destructive. Among these was an inflammatory directive targeting South Africa, falsely accusing our government of orchestrating land expropriations and violence against Afrikaners. This baseless claim, amplified by Trump’s relentless social media posts, has sown confusion and division, endangering the very people he claims to protect. 

The hypocrisy is staggering. The same administration that expelled legal immigrants and dismantled refugee protections now offers asylum to white South Africans—a move that reeks of political opportunism rather than genuine humanitarian concern.

A few American journalists uSpiked has been communicating with in the previous 116 days confess being overwhelmed. With one telling me, “Brother we are just drowning, we cannot even have a serious editorial meeting to discuss issues to be covered. You head for your beat hoping your piece will be the lead item in the next edition, only to see a post on his Truth Social scattering everything that may have been planned for the day. It’s a firehose of rubbish.”

According to uSpiked’s information processing system, since returning to the White House in January 20, 2025, DJT has posted as much 3,209 items on his Truth Social. That works out to an average of twenty-seven posts per day. When does he perform real presidential duties? Another journalist told me, “…things only get easier when he is playing golf at one of his clubs.”

economic warfare and the illusion of tariffs

Yes, while he may think and believe he is running the world, the right wording should be bullying the world. As the world he is now bullying was facing hardships following COVID-19 pandemic whose management he had bungled during his first term at the White House, thanks to US funding of the Russia-Ukraine war, USA economy remained above waters. This prompted the authoritative The Economist to declare in October 2024 that the US Economy to have been the envy of the World.

Trump’s trade policies have been nothing short of disastrous. His imposition of reciprocal tariffs—30% on South African goods, among others—was sold to the American public as a punitive measure against foreign nations. In reality, these tariffs are a regressive tax on American consumers, driving up prices and stifling competition. China’s retaliatory measures have further isolated U.S. farmers, leaving them stranded without markets while Brazil and other BRICS nations capitalize on the void. 

The notion that foreign nations bear the cost of these tariffs is a lie, one that even Wharton School—Trump’s alma mater—refuses to dignify with a response. The truth is simple: trade wars have no winners, only casualties.

assault on constitutional norms

Perhaps most alarming is Trump’s brazen disregard for the U.S. Constitution. His attempt to terminate birthright citizenship, a cornerstone of the 14th Amendment, and his acceptance of a Boeing 747 jet from Qatar as a personal gift—a direct violation of Article 1, Section 9 Clause 8 —demonstrate a pattern of constitutional overreach. These actions are not mere incompetence; they are deliberate steps toward consolidating unchecked power.

Trump's earlier mindset

The silence of the Republican leadership and the complicity of a weakened Supreme Court have emboldened this erosion of democratic safeguards. As Trump tests the limits of executive authority, the world must ask: How much further will this go?

Media personalities like MSNBC’s Lawrence O'Donnell casually dismiss these actions as “Trump-level stupidity of a senile man”, a closer look should present a chill to all American. The actions may be stupid, but the only two things standing between the actions are incompetency and the Constitution. O’Donnell and his colleagues should revisit his December 3, 2022 post at his Truth Social when he called for the termination of the Constitution. With Republican congressional leadership having surrendered Article 1 responsibilities to DJT, he must be seeking some loopholes that would enable him to suspend the Constitution. 

the global reckoning

The fallout from Trump’s policies is not confined to the United States. Nations worldwide are scrambling to "Trump-proof" their economies and alliances, but his unpredictability renders traditional diplomacy futile. The Atlantic’s June 2025 cover story captured it succinctly: Trump believes he is "running the world," but in truth, he is destabilizing it. 

The American public, once enamored by the illusion of economic invincibility, now faces the harsh reality of their choice. Leadership matters—and the world is paying the price for America’s failure to heed the warnings.

History will judge this era as a cautionary tale of demagoguery, where short-sighted policies and constitutional brinkmanship brought a superpower to its knees. The question is no longer whether Trump’s actions will have consequences, but whether the damage can ever be undone.