Tariffs, Tantrums, and the Tattered Empire

As Trump waves trade threats like reality show props, the world quietly moves on—and America’s decline accelerates.

It turns out you can’t bully your way out of decline, but that hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from trying. One letter at a time.

Last week, Trump scrawled a sharpie-penned note to a foreign entity, but today he escalated, publishing actual typed letters to countries like Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Laos, informing them they’d be getting a 25–40% tariff gift, effective August 1. These letters, hilariously identical in their copy-paste tone, were paraded on Truth Social for “transparency” while markets tanked in response. It’s as if the President of the United States discovered Mail Merge and decided to treat international trade like sending out save-the-dates for a tacky wedding no one wants to attend.

The markets, predictably, did not appreciate the performance. The Dow slid, investors panicked, and manufacturers braced for rising costs on the goods they actually need to keep America functioning. But Trump’s regime insists this is “winning,” or at least “helping,” because the tariffs are bringing in “revenue.” They forget to mention it’s revenue from Americans, paying more for their cars, groceries, and everything else that crosses a border before it hits your shopping cart. A tariff, as Richard Wolff might remind them, is not a sign of strength; it’s a sign of desperation. The economic equivalent of selling the floorboards of your house for firewood, just to stay warm one more winter while the roof caves in.

Trump promised 90 trade deals in 90 days. What we got was zero deals, two vague “frameworks,” and a global supply chain stuck in limbo because no one wants to bet billions on a man who changes deadlines on a whim—or a country that can’t stop tripping over its own delusions of grandeur. Japan isn’t rolling over, South Korea isn’t rolling over, and even Vietnam, a country Trump courted with golf courses and bulldozed cemeteries—refuses to play along. Meanwhile, long-haul trucking is faltering, with freight volumes still well below the boom times of 2021 and rates flat or declining across core segments. On the coast, West Coast ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach have seen containers drop by 20–35%, ship calls halved, and dockworker shifts disappear, a real-world snapshot of the chaos incubating in Trump’s trade theater.

Meanwhile, our so-called allies are drifting away. Canada and the EU are talking defense pacts that don’t include us. Japan and South Korea are talking to China, forging ties that don’t rely on American “leadership.” Countries are finding workarounds to our tariffs and sanctions, trading with each other, investing elsewhere, hedging against a world where the United States simply can’t be trusted anymore.

This is what decline looks like: a regime that thinks threatening tariffs on Canada, Japan, and Brazil will make America great again, while simultaneously scaring off tourists, collapsing real estate investment, and stalling international business. Did you know tourism to the United States is down by nearly $29 billion this year? Canadians don’t want to cross the border. Brazilians aren’t buying condos in Miami. Even our closest neighbors are saying, “Thanks, but no thanks,” because who wants to visit a country that wakes up every morning just to pick a fight?

Trump says he wants to bring manufacturing back, but that ship sailed decades ago when American companies realized they could pay workers a fraction of the wages in countries like China while accessing markets four times the size of the United States. You can’t tariff your way back to 1950. You can’t threaten a globalized economy into reverse. And you certainly can’t rebuild American manufacturing by raising prices on the very goods needed for manufacturing while pretending deficits are the same as foreign tariffs.

And yet here we are, a country trying to hold onto a collapsing empire by waving letters around like a reality show prop, yelling at allies, alienating trading partners, and calling it “winning.” All while the rest of the world quietly moves on.

Economist Richard Wolff calls it the “herky‑jerky decline of empire,” and he’s absolutely right. This is no graceful exit, it’s messy, desperate flailing. Last week alone, the President shouted about annexing Greenland, threatened Canada next day, and dangled tariffs at BRICS countries, while BRICS now represents roughly 40% of global GDP (up to 41% by PPP) compared to the G7’s ~30% share . The world isn’t laughing with us; it’s quietly stepping aside. Canada and the European Union just signed a landmark defense pact, shadowing America on Ukraine, cyber-security, and maritime security. Meanwhile, tourists are fleeing U.S. soil, Canadian visits are down 70%, overall European tourism down 17%, erasing up to $29 billion in inbound spending. As old allies hedge, new alliances arise. They’re preparing, forming and diversifying, just as the U.S. stumbles in real-time. The global architecture isn’t collapsing overnight, but it’s shifting, and America’s performing actor seems to be realizing his lines a moment too late.

You want to know what else collapse looks like? A regime cutting off Ukrainian air defense targeting data while telling Putin on the phone how “disappointed” it is, then pretending it’s still a defender of democracy while the world watches in disbelief. A regime bragging about tariff revenues while families pay more for avocados, cars, and clothing, while small businesses fold, and while our global standing dissolves in real-time.

Trump’s tariff letters are not about trade. They are about denial. Denial that the world has changed, that the empire is crumbling, and that yelling louder on Truth Social won’t stop it. This is fear wrapped in cheap nationalism. And the markets, the world, and the American people are left holding the bill.

The empire is in decline. The tariffs are a symptom, not a cure. And until we reckon with that reality, we’re just going to keep watching the circus, paying more for less, while the rest of the world learns to live without us.

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